Courting Death
by Don'tWorryBeHyper
Summary: Colin Gray may be dead, but he is far from gone. He is an incubus, the only creature strong enough to defeat Jennifer Check, and all he really wants to do is paint his nails black and listen to maggot rock. Jeez! ColinxNeedy better than my shitty summary.
1. Lasagna with Teeth

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry for being such a blatant Kyle Gallner fangirl, but he's such a tasty little morsel! Anyways, here's a story I wrote. You probably figured that out.**

**PS: None of the reasons as to why Colin became what he was are mentioned in the movie, I just made them up.**

**CHAPTER ONE: Lasagna with Teeth**

I was disgusting. "Lasagna with teeth", according to my dear old mom. Charming, huh?

The people doing my autopsy must have been terrified. I wouldn't blame them, really. It must've been like something out of a George A. Romero film: me clambering off the operating table, puking up something black and spiky, and then baring my teeth at them like a rabid pirahna.

I'm pretty sure pirahnas don't get rabies, but does that even matter? Didn't think so.

When I actually came to, I was curled up in the corner of the morgue, ass naked and rocking back and forth like a mental case. Something warm and salty coated the insides of my mouth, the coppery tang identifying it immediately as blood. And the bodies of the two coroners lay scattered in slimy pieces across the floor.

_Oh, shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit_, I thought, not feeling totally and completely capable of coherent thought. I knew what I'd done. It was easy enough to add two and two together. Hapless coroners+zombified teenage boy=coroner shepard's pie. Not a good equation. I got up and staggered out of the room. It was maybe two or three in the A.M, meaning no one really was around. That, thankfully, made it fairly easy for me to bolt.

One thing I like about Devil's Kettle: it's a dinky-ass town. And dinky means you can get to your house totally naked and covered in blood without being noticed by anyone. Well, except for that one hobo, but I think he was high.

Anyways, I pulled a total _Excorcist _and climbed up my house's wall (I was pretty shocked, but it makes sense now that I think on it. I'd just fed, after all). I had to smash the glass of my bedroom window to get inside it. The shattering noise was deafening. Why didn't my parents wake up?

Where were my parents?

_Focus, Colin, focus_. I scrambled in and went straight for my dresser: I wasn't sure how much longer I could take this situation seriously in the buff. I remembered the days when what you wore actually mattered: when I actually spent time doing my hair like a total fruit salad, because that's what all the people I hung out with did. Now I couldn't have really cared; I just needed to not be naked.

I heard stirring downstairs as I zipped up my pants. I thought I heard my mother murmur something in her sleep.

Wait, how would I be able to hear that? My parents' bedroom was way too far away for me to hear anything. They could've been banging and I wouldn't have lost a wink of sleep.

I stood still for a moment.

I could hear so many things. Crickets sang in the deathly still of the night. Flower petals rustled in the front yard. Down in the kitchen–the fucking _kitchen–_I could hear a fly buzzing.

_I'm, like, a fucking superhero._

The thought didn't cheer me up much. I wanted to go downstairs. I wanted to see my parents. I wanted to be alive, a normal kid again.

The corners of my eyes began to sting.

_You are _not _crying right now, Colin. Quit being such a little bitch_. I pawed at my eyes quickly, hoping no actual tears had escaped.

I needed to leave. But where would I go?

Kindergarten instinct kicked in. _A familiar place. A comforting place._

I'm not sure if I was really paying attention to my feet until I turned the corner and ended up on Needy's street. Her house looked deserted, but at the moment, it didn't matter to me.

I needed somehwere to hide, and her place seemed like it would be alright for now.

Again with the _Excorcist _crap, only her window was (mercifully) unlocked. I didn't want to have to break her window.

Her room was kind of girly, all frills and ribbons. Not what you'd expect from seeing Needy Lesnicki day-to-day. But it didn't matter. I sank down on her bed and let my muscles slacken for a moment. I needed to self-assess. I put two fingers against my wrist. No pulse.

I really was dead.

And yet...

I hiked up my T-shirt and stared down at my stomach. The incision the coroner had made had healed into nothing more than a faint white mark. As for Jennifer's teeth marks, they'd turned to puffy, pinkish scars. They could have been from years ago, and yet the horrors of that night replayed fresh in my head, never fading or blurring.

Why had I even come up with that stupid idea? Who had convinced me to ask Jennifer out in order to get closer to who I really wanted to be with?

Why had I been ballsy enough to go to Jennifer's house? My stupid boy-brain had assumed that she would unload all details to Needy the next day, including any juicy bits that might have taken place.

Unfortunately, the juicy bits were a bit more drippy. Or bloody, whatever. My _point _being, my life wasn't worth trying to make Anita Lesnicki jealous.

Yeah, that's right, boys and girls.

_God, I'm such an idiot. _I lowered my shirt. The scars were a cruel reminder of how much I'd paid for my own selfish stupidity. Just to think–if I'd actually just _told _Needy I liked her, I'd probably still be fucking alive.

I collapsed fully, lying on my back. Needy had a very soft mattress. Its scent reached my heightened senses, some mixture of girly shampoo and laundry detergent, and that warm, feminine smell all girls give off. I didn't know how many times I'd wondered what it would be like to lie in Needy's bed, under different circumstances.

I heard the softest of scuffling sounds coming from one story below, where I'd made my entrance. I caught a smell–dried blood.

_Jennifer_.

I jumped to my feet and bolted, flinging myself into the closet and closing the door behind me. Through the slats in the wooden door, I saw Jennifer creep in and close the window behind her. She shed her bloody clothes (stained with _my _blood. Thanks, Jen) and opened Needy's dresser drawers, searching until she found a pair of pajamas. She tucked herself into Needy's bed and turned the lights off.

I stood stock still in that closet. I wasn't sure how long. I didn't know if Jennifer was asleep or just lying there. I didn't even know if she, if whatever she was, needed to sleep.

The front door opened and closed eventually, and Needy's scent hit me again.

Shit. Jennifer was lying in her bed. I needed to warn her, to get her out of there.

On the other hand, if Jennifer saw me, I didn't know what she'd do to either of us.

_Jennifer won't hurt Needy. They're best friends. Right?_

Shit. I had no fucking idea what I was supposed to do.

Needy's bedroom door opened, and she entered the room, throwing herself down onto the bed, mere inches away from Jennifer's still body. Jennifer shifted, and Needy shrieked, bolting upright.

I wasn't even breathing. I waited to see if Jennifer would spring, if she would bare those horrible teeth again.

Instead, she just laughed.

My ear pressed up against the closet door, I heard her tell Needy what had happened that night at Melody Lane. As badly as I felt towards her, I couldn't help but feel a little bad _for _her. A band of satanic alterna-rockers going "totally Benihana" on her ass didn't sound like any fun.

I saw her whip out what looked like a giant toothpick and carve a long line into her arm. I shuddered. The people I had hung out with did shit like that all the time, slicing and burning and rubbing themselves raw just because they desperately needed some kind of attention–but this was different. The line healed up like a movie clip put in reverse, blood sucking back into the wound and all. When she was done, there wasn't even a mark.

It was her eyes that unnerved me the most, though. She just didn't _care_. Not about the pain she was causing herself, or Needy, or anybody else. It just didn't matter to her.

Suddenly, she lunged forward and she and Needy locked lips. I stifled a surprised "whoa". Needy launched her back onto the bed and climbed atop her.

This was insane. How did this happen? Normally, I would not have been complaining–two girls making out is _hot_, okay?–but under these circumstances, I just felt like someone had dumped reality into a Sweeney Todd-style meat grinder.

Needy seemed to come to her senses. That's when Jennifer said something about Chip.

I saw Needy's whole body stiffen, as though her bones had fused together. She jabbed a finger at the door. "Get out."

Jennifer laughed and slithered out of the window, dropping to the ground outside and promptly melting into the shadows. Needy crumbled back down onto her bed and began to sob.

Cautiously, I pushed the closet door open. She didn't hear it over the sound of her own tears. As I approached her bed, I knew it probably wasn't the right thing to do, but I didn't care.

I sat down at the edge of the bed and put a hand on her shoulder. From the way her warm skin tingled against my fingertips, I knew my hand must have been ice cold.

She wailed and jumped away, legs getting tangled in the bedsheets. "C-Colin?"

"Yeah, it's me." I chewed on my lip, teeth scraping painfully against my lip ring. "Please...don't be scared, Needy. I mean, you can be scared, but I promise–I mean, shit, why wouldn't you be scared? I just fully came out of the closet–well, not like _that–_" I stopped. I was babbling, like I always did around her.

Needy looked as though she might laugh. Or cry. Or puke. "How did you get in here? I thought you were–weren't you with–"

"–Jennifer? Yeah. Uh, listen. I heard what she said to you, and I know you probably can't take it right now, but I have some news of my own."

She was still for a moment, as though catatonic. Finally, realization crept onto her face. "Wait," she breathed. "She..._did _something to you, didn't she? To make you the way she is?"

"I-I think so." I hoisted up my shirt again and showed her my scars.

She sucked in her breath and slowly took off her glasses. "What is that?"

"It's from when they were doing my autopsy. I just sort of, I dunno, woke up when they were in the middle of it."

"Have you killed anyone?" her voice was less trembly than before. It was a direct question.

I looked down at my hands, at the blood beneath my fingernails. "Yeah. I did."

"Who?"

"The coroners." I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip again. "I'm so sorry, Needy."

"Colin..." she reached out her hand as though to touch my face, and then pulled it away. "What did Jennifer do to you?"

"She went totally Benihana on me," I replied, smiling despite myself.

It took her a moment to get it. "Don't joke, Colin. What does this mean? What about your parents?"

"Everyone thinks I'm dead. I think my funeral's in a couple of days. Are you going?"

Needy blinked slowly, like a cat. "You–you want me to?"

"I would appreciate it, sure."

"I'll go, then, but...what are you going to do? I mean, you're not gonna, like, eat me, are you?"

I glanced at the moon. It seemed to be waning. "I fed tonight, remember? Coroner value meal." Looking back at her, I saw tears rolling down her cheeks.

I hesitated for a moment, and then touched the side of her face. She went still for a moment and then relaxed, full-on sobbing. I almost said "Don't cry, Needy", but then again, she had every reason to cry.

She grabbed the front of my shirt, fists grabbing bunches of the fabric. "Promise me something," she hiccuped.

"What?"

"Promise me..." she let out a shuddering breath, face twisting up in anguish. "_Swear to me _that you're one of the good guys."

Slowly, the way one might act around a deer in the forest, I scooted forward and folded my arms around her. "I swear."

I held Needy that night until she fell asleep, too drained by her emotions. Having just fed, I felt full of energy, kinetic and unreal. I paced around her room as she lay curled up into a ball on her bed, buried inside a dreamless sleep. Want to know how I could tell? With my ultra-fucking-night vision, I could actually watch her eyes move beneath her eyelids, smell her nervous sweat when a dream was coming on, monitor the pace of her breathing.

I picked at the blood under my nails, chewed my lips until they felt like sandpaper, glanced at the clock about five times a second.

And, naturally, I kept looking at Needy. I had never seen her with her guard completely let down except for in Narrative Non-Fiction, when it was just her and the pen. I had seen every tensed muscle in her body slacken like someone had pulled a loose threat on her and begun unraveling. Sometimes it was hard picking up my own pen in that class, I was so busy staring at her. I could have written so much about her; the way she reminded me of a little china doll, the way her fingers were small and stubby, the way she laughed, her gangly legs. She was so different than the Dead Girls I tended to hang out with: girls who masked a total lack of IQ points with black lipstick and crappy, dark poetry. She didn't really try to conform to anything in particular except for Jennifer's fist of iron.

Jennifer fucking Check. I didn't even know her middle name. It didn't matter. She would be Jennifer Fucking Check to me now.

"JFC sounds like KFC," I informed the sleeping blonde.

I glanced down at Needy again. The weave from her pillow was making a mark on her cheek. I laughed a little. She looked like a puppy, all curled into herself.

"Oh, Needy." I ran a hand through my hair. A few strands, caked in dried blood, snagged on my fingers. "What the hell are we going to do about Jennifer?"

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, first chapter. I hope you all enjoyed your reading!**

**My friends and I had seen this movie for the second time, and we were discussing why we thought Colin liked Needy and not Jen. I mean, he's the one Chip is all jealous of, and he seems to like Needy a lot. Maybe he asked Jen out to make Needy jealous...well, that was one of our hypotheses anyway. And so I took that idea and made it into a story. School just let out, so I think I'll be able to update this pretty frequently. R&R!**


	2. All Dark and Emotional and Stuff

**Author's Note: Here's chapter two! YEEEEEEY!**

**PS: This is written in NEEDY'S POV.**

**CHAPTER TWO: Really Dark and Emotional and Stuff**

The cemetery was freakishly quiet. It was early in the morning, and in Devil's Kettle, no one needs alarm clocks because of the damn birds. It's like buying a nature sound CD and having it stay on track 03-Loud Fucking Birds.

But today, no birds chirped. The only sound I could hear was a quiet sniffling that seemed to ripple through the crowd.

I kept twisting my hands around nervously and glancing every which way. I was sure I'd see Colin lurking behind a mourner or standing just to my right or something, but I saw no sign of him.

Colin's mother was still. Corpselike. It was awful.

Jennifer wasn't there. I checked.

Towards the end, some of the Dead Kids got restless. One of them said, "Colin wouldn't have liked this."

Colin's mom stepped forward. "No, I'm pretty sure Colin wouldn't have liked being eaten by a fucking cannibal before his eighteenth birthday. By the time they found Colin in that godforsaken house, he looked like lasagna with teeth. I'd know- I had to identify the remains. My boy's not in the realm of the undead. He's not flying around in the firmament with magical wings of flame. He's in an overpriced rosewood box that's headed six feet downtown." She began to sob, sinking to her knees.

I felt sick just watching. I turned around, prepared to go home.

Colin stood at the far edge of the cemetery. His hands were stuck in his pocket, and he pushed his lip ring around with his tongue. Hair hung in front of his eyes, making his expression unreadable. I turned back towards the crowd. No one else could see him, they were so fixated on the coffin. I wondered what was inside that box–sandbags? A dummy? What had the funeral director done when he found out there _was no corpse_?

When I turned around again, Colin wasn't standing there. Instead, he leaned against an enormous headstone, one with a marble angel standing atop it, its head bowed studiously in prayer. Damp streaks ran down his pale cheeks, and his shoulders trembled slightly. The sight of him crying twisted my stomach into knots. I tried to smile at him, but the corners of my mouth twitched inevitably downwards. I couldn't imagine how he must have felt, watching his mother like that.

After the funeral, I headed home and went up to the bathroom. I unzipped my black dress and tossed it over the toilet, reaching down to take off my baggy tights. The moment I stepped out of them, my phone rang. I scooped it up.

"H-Hello?"

"Hey, Needy."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't know who I'd expected–Jennifer, possibly. "Hi, Chip. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Where've you been?"

"Um, Colin Gray's funeral."

"Oh." He paused. "I'm sorry."

"It was awful, Chip." I sat on the rim of the bathtub, pushing my glasses up my nose. "His mom, like...I don't even know. It's just too much to handle, you know? First the fire at Melody Lane, then Jonas Kasellas, then this."

"Yeah, you two were pretty tight, huh?"

I could detect the hint of jealousy in Chip's voice. I blushed, thinking back on the night before, when Colin had paid his little visit.

"I don't know. I guess we were friends."

"Do you want to hang out today, babe?"

"Not today. I'm feeling a little drained."

"Oh. Alright." His voice dropped in disappointment. "See you at school, Needy."

The line went dead. I hurled my phone at the door. It bounced off, landing on my balled-up dress.

"I am such an idiot," I muttered.

There was a soft knock at the door. "Needy?"

"Colin?" I stood up and snatched my dress up off the floor, yanking it over my head in case he opened the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Y-yeah. Come on in." I laughed, my voice high and nervous.

He came in. The morning mist had dampened his hair, and it pressed close to his cheeks, curling gently. His rosary caught the bathroom light as it dangled from his wrist and set a tiny spray of silvery dots across the wall.

"Could I take a shower or something? I'm feeling a tad...bloody."

"Sure. I don't have any clothes you could change into or anything, though..."

"My clothes are fine." He brushed past me and I slipped out of the bathroom, closing the door softly behind me. I heard the hot water turn on and the sound of something unzipping. Sighing, I headed to my room.

As I was pulling on some normal clothes, my phone buzzed again. I flipped it open and pressed it to my cheek with my shoulder as I tugged on some jeans. "Chip?"

"No, it's Jennifer, four-point-oh. It's called Caller ID, hello?"

"Sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

"Wanna hang out? I just got _Twilight _on Netflix, and I am having another Edward crave."

"What, do fanged things attract?" I murmured, mostly to myself.

"Huh?"

"Um, nothing. I can't. I have...chores and, uh, stuff. You know."

"I swear to God, you are _always _busy. Is Chip over there boinking you or something?"

"No. God!"

"Just asking. Maybe _he _wants to watch _Twilight _with me..."

"I gotta go, Jen." I hung up and switched my cell off. Who did she think she was?

_Oh, my God. Is Chip gonna be her next Snackscapade? _I sank down onto the bed, burying my head in my hands.

"Uh, Needy?"

I looked up. Colin stood in front of me.

"You shower fast."

"Yeah, I can do a lot of stuff faster now." The corner of his mouth turned up. "Thanks for coming to the funeral."

"Hey, no problem," I replied, trying to keep my voice under control. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything."

"I know. But I still am, Colin. Nobody deserves that."

He fiddled with his rosary. The metal beads clacked together gently.

I gnawed on my thumbnail. "Colin, I have to tell you something."

"What?"

"I think Jen's going after Chip next."

He was silent for a moment. "What makes you think that?"

"She's been talking about him so much lately, about how cute he looks all of the sudden and stuff. And I think she's targeting him." I looked into his eyes. "I need you to, I don't know, _protect _Chip or something. Keep him out of harm's way until we can figure out how to defeat her." I watched his face for a reaction. "Will you?"

He came forward and knelt in front of me, taking my hands in his. His fingers were long and white, studded with rings and ending in black-painted nails. "Needy," he said softly. "I promised you I'd be one of the good guys, and I fully intend to be. You've trusted me up until now, so I will look after Chip, if that's what you want."

I blushed. His hands were really warm. His skin seemed to glow with heat, the way Jennifer's did after she'd fed. "Thank you, Colin," I managed. "Thank you so much." Gently, I disentangled one of my hands from his and touched the side of his face. His eyes found mine again.

"You're so warm," I whispered.

"Am I?" He closed his eyes briefly. "I can't tell. Your hands are cold."

A moment later, he stood up. "I'm going to run to my house real quick. I need to grab some clothes, figure out where I'll be staying from now on, that kind of thing."

"Stay here!" I blurted out without thinking. I shrunk back a little. "I mean, if that's okay. I'm just saying, I don't want you sleeping outside or something."

"Really?" He smiled his half-smile and my stomach did a little flip.

"Y-yeah. Absolutely. Just be cutty, okay? My mom will freak if she knows some guy she's never met is living here. _Especially _since you're not my boyfriend."

For a moment, it looked as though he was going to say something. Then he turned away.

"I'll be back soon. Thanks again."

"No problem."

He slipped quietly outside my door. I heard his footsteps going down my stairs and to the front hall. As the front door opened, I raced downstairs and grabbed the door handle before the door swung shut. Pushing it open, I peered outside. Colin had just walked outside the door, and I couldn't see him anywhere. _He really is like Jennifer_, I thought as I closed the door.

"Where's it at, Monistat?"

"_SHIT_, Jennifer!" I shrieked, whirling around. "Could you, like, clear your throat or something next time?"

"But this is fun," she bubbled. "It's like being James Bond or something. _No _one sees me coming, so I have the best entrances."

"What do you need?" I snapped, knowing I sounded pretty bitchy. I would have felt bad had Jennifer not been a cannibalistic she-monster who preyed on adolescent boys.

Unfortunately, she was said creature, and I didn't feel bad.

"I just want to hang out, Needy. You don't have to go all Samuel L. Jackson on me! We're BFFs, remember?" she dangled the friendship necklace in front of my eyes.

Freaking sandbox love.

"Yes, I remember. But Jen–why do you have to do these things?"

"Do _what_?" she pouted, placing a hand on her hip and looking at me with big doe eyes.

"You know exactly what. Jonas, Colin, Ahmet–and now who? Chip? Is that who you're shooting for next?"

"Needy, Needy, Needy," she sighed, shaking her head. "Poor Needy. So insecure about her relationship with her boyfriend. That can't be fun for Chip, can it? He must be getting kind of sick of it."

"Jennifer, _stop it_!" I shouted, shoving her. She stumbled an inch or two and looked at me with dead eyes.

"Best you can do, Lesnicki? We both know that threw down, you'd be corned beef hash."

"I'm not scared of you," I hissed, too angry to be scared.

She stepped forward and grabbed my arms, pinning them to the wall above my head. I struggled against her, but her hands were like two vises.

Her glossy black head swooped down, and her mouth found my shoulder. She tore the fabric of my t-shirt away with her teeth, leaving a ragged hole where my neck and shoulder met. She kissed the flesh, softly, almost lovingly, and then sank her teeth into my skin.

I screamed. Nothing had ever hurt so bad. It was the sting you got from scraping your knee, magnified by a hundred and combined with a white-hot wire burning sensation.

"Je-JENNIFER!"

She giggled and released me. Blood coated her lips.

I sank to the floor and balled myself up, staring at her with fearful eyes. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"And that's only a taste of what you'll get next time you try to get in my way, sugar pie."

I closed my eyes for a moment, willed the pain to go away. When I opened them, she had left, leaving only the backdoor swinging as if in some phantom breeze.

Struggling to my feet, I hurried down the hall to the bathroom. Specter, my albino ferret, scampered across the floor, looking for all the world like a baby ghost. I couldn't help it. I let out another shriek.

Inside the bathroom I took my t-shirt off to inspect the damage. The wound sung with a sharp pain as though it were a bee sting, and the edges were pinkish, like raw chicken. I scrambled through the medicine cabinet for bandages and ointment, knocking aside my mom's pill bottles in the process. I slapped them on with all the precision of a blind four-year-old, sobbing all the while. Knowing Jennifer had lost whatever connection to me she'd ever had hurt worse than the wound itself.

I heard the front door open and shut, and half-expecting it to be Colin, I rushed to put my shirt back on.

Instead, it was Chip. He grinned nervously, leaning against the doorframe. "Sorry, the door was unlocked. I got worried and wanted to check up on you."

"Oh, how sweet." I forced a smile onto my face.

"Why are you grimacing like that? You look like Dolly Parton."

"It was supposed to be a smile," I grumbled.

He took a longer look at me. "What happened to your arm?"

Hastily, I covered the mass of Band-Aids with my hand. "Specter, uh, bit me. It's nothing serious."

"Maybe you should change your shirt, though."

"Yeah, maybe," I replied, trying to sound cheery.

He grabbed me around the waist. "Or maybe you should just take it off." His voice was warm and soothing, breath caressing my neck and sending delicious goosebumps up and down my arms. The thought that Jennifer would ever try to take him from me was more than I could bear.

I stood on my tiptoes and took my glasses off, shoving them in my pocket. I kissed him softly on the mouth as I ignored the residual ache in my shoulder.

His hands slid beneath my t-shirt and pushed the fabric up my back and over my head. I shrugged it off and threw it on the ground, taking him by the hand and leading him into the living-room. I pulled him down onto the couch and flipped over so I was on top of him, and then I reached back and tried to get my bra off. My fingers snagged and tangled in the fabric, and I let out an exasperated sigh.

"I could help you," he murmured, reaching up.

"Alright," I giggled. I leaned down and kissed his nose, gently grinding my hips against the bulge in his jeans. I had a million fears nagging in my head, but I wanted a moment of happiness with a boy I was scared to lose.

_Can you blame me for that? _I asked silently, turning my eyes to the brass statue of JC on the cross that rested on our sidetable.

Jesus' expression didn't change, but I'm sure he didn't blame me. I'm sure the Messiah would've wanted to spend some quality tiempo with his boo.

**Author's Note: I tried really hard to keep in character with Needy, which wasn't easy. I think the hardest part was writing the dialogue, since they had all this slang and all these references in the movie. I hope it worked, at least sort of. Please review!**


	3. Coitus SuperInterruptus

**Author's Note: This was written in Colin's POV...you probably guessed that...THANK YOU to the people who have added this to their favorites! **

**CHAPTER THREE: Coitus Super-Interruptus**

I hoisted myself over the windowsill of my bedroom. Again with the _Exorcist _mutant spider-thing. I grabbed my schoolbag off my bed. Nothing in my room had been disturbed since that night.

Going to my dresser, I emptied shirts, pants, socks, underwear, whatever I thought I would need. My hand hovered over certain things–did I need a jacket? Did I need to brush my teeth anymore? I decided to play it safe and packed everything. It was like going camping, only nobody was supposed to know I was alive.

I tucked one of my notebooks into my bag. It reminded me of English class, of Jennifer Fucking Check in the seat in front of me, flipping her hair onto my desk and asking in a stage whisper for my notes. It also brought to mind Narrative Non-Fiction, of that one time I was reading that poem in front of the class and I looked up and saw tears budding in Needy's eyes, trapped there by the frames of her glasses.

_It wasn't supposed to be a sad poem, _I had told her later.

_I know_, she'd replied. _It was beautiful, though. That's why I was crying._

I had left school that day feeling like I was on top of the goddamn world.

I had everything I needed.

My bag felt heavy as I hoisted it over my shoulder. I heard someone's footsteps coming from downstairs.

For a moment, I froze up. It could have been one of my parents. The urge to see them gripped me like a boa constrictor. I felt like a kid in kindergarten again, screaming for their mother.

But I knew I couldn't. Theirs wasn't a world I belonged in anymore.

I drew the hood of my sweatshirt over my head before sliding out the window. I landed fairly nimbly and began to run.

The good thing about being one of the walking undead (or whatever I was): it wasn't easy to get tired. I was wearing steel-toed boots, and running felt like the easiest thing in the world. As I ran, I began to feel a little less like a teenager in Dead Boy clothes and a little more like something wilder, something more primal. I looked up at the sky. The moon was smaller than it had been the night before. A part of me felt as though something of mine was leaving with it.

What could it have been? My life? My humanity? Possibly.

There–Needy's neighborhood. The meager rush hour was beginning to fill out the streets of Devil's Kettle, so I ducked into alleyways as I wound through the houses.

I reached her house and bolted around the back, scrambling up her wall as fast as my undead freak-eyness would allow me to. Needy, perhaps being thoughtful, had left her window open a crack. I slid my arm through to give myself a handhold as I pried it open all the way.

I heard a low whistle from behind me. "Hey, Cassanova."

I began to turn, and then froze. My hood covered a lot of my face, but I didn't want to risk showing anything.

"Sneaking in to see the lady love?" It was a middle-aged man. Turning around another fraction of an inch, I spied him: dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, he sported a bit of a beer gut and was going gray around the edges. he sat in a rocker on the back porch of the house next to Needy's.

I opened my mouth, and then closed it again. I didn't really have anything to say back to that.

"It's alright," the man chuckled. "I was young once too. Well, don't get caught." He hoisted himself out of the rocking chair and started towards the inside of the house. I shoved the window all the way up and propelled myself inside.

I landed on Needy's floor, still reeling from the encounter, and did not land on my feet. Instead, I lay sprawled on the floor, looking like an idiot.

There was someone going around killing teenage boys, and he thought it was perfectly normal for me to be climbing up someone's wall? I laughed nervously. Gotta love old people.

As I lay there, my hypersensitive ears adjusted to the house, and I strained to hear Needy. There–a giggle that was distinctly hers.

"Needy?" I called out.

Someone else's voice popped up. "Who was that?"

_Oh, shit. _Someone else was home. Dammit, I was such an idiot. I prepared to hurdle myself into the closet again, but then Needy spoke up.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Oh."

I got to my feet and slid my bag under her bed, making my way to the doorway of her bedroom. I listened for footsteps, anything suggesting someone coming up to her room, and heard nothing except for more giggles.

"Ow. _Ow_!"

Was that Needy's voice? Was she okay? I started down the stairs, thankful that the hall light wasn't on. The only light in the house came from the living room, which is also where the sound was coming from.

I paused by the doorway and tried to look in without having my head come into view. This required me looking from the corner of my eye, which made it slightly hard to make out individual shapes. I saw a mass of flesh color and two heads, one blonde and one darker.

Like a camera focusing, individual details became clear. Needy and Chip Dove lay on the couch, both buck naked. Needy straddled Chip, her hair a mass of tangles.

Seeing Needy naked was more bizarre than I could fathom, especially since I'd resigned myself to the fact that I would _never _see her naked the moment she and Chip got together Freshman year.

Also, it hit me pretty hard, seeing Chip there. It made sense, of course, him being her boyfriend and all, but I was hurt. For a moment, I guess I'd really been convinced I meant something to her, something she could trust.

She turned her head and spotted me. Her eyes grew to the size of DVDs and she went totally silent. Chip, whose eyes were screwed tightly shut in what was probably pre-coital ecstasy, opened them, and I shot away from the doorframe.

"What was that?" he asked, breath coming in gruff pants.

"N-Nothing. No one," came her reply.

I hurried up the stairs, praying to God that none of the steps would creak. _God, Colin, you are _such _an idiot._

How could I have let myself assume that I meant nearly as much to her as Chip did? He was her boyfriend, for Christ's sake. He was her _everything_.

Me? I didn't even know what I was. A safety net, maybe.

I paced around her room, sat down on her bed and then sprang back up immediately because I didn't want to look creepy or anything. My super-ultra-fucking-hearing could make out voices, but I tried not to listen in on their conversation.

When I heard the front door open and shut, I knew Chip had left. Presently, the sound of footsteps on the stairs came to my ears, and Needy's bedroom door swung open. She stood in the doorway, looking disheveled and slightly sweaty. The buttons on her shirt were off by one, and her fly was halfway down, as though she'd gotten dressed in the dark.

"Hi, Colin." She glanced down, then up at me. Her eyes were large and guilty as a schoolgirl in trouble's. "I'm really sorry about that. I should have warned you about that, only I wasn't sure when you'd be back, and Chip came over, and..." she stopped, twisting her hands nervously.

"It's fine. Really." I began to play with my rosary, a nervous habit. Then a smell hit me: blood. Not fresh, but recently spilled. "Hey, Needy, did you cut yourself or something?"

"Huh?"

"It smells like blood."

"Fudge." She unbuttoned the top buttons of her shirt and pulled the fabric away from her shoulder. A bunch of Band-aids were heaped haphazardly over...well, over something. And that _something _didn't seem to be too pleasant.

"Needy, what happened?"

"Promise not to freak out?"

I stepped forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Needy–"

"OW!"

"Oh, sorry." I released my grip on her wounded shoulder. "Please, I need you to show me your wound."

"Okay. But _don't freak out_." The words were some sort of a warning. I watched as she pulled the Band-Aids away, grimacing slightly as she ripped them. One by one, she peeled the layers of Latex away.

Until all that was left was a very nasty-looking gash. The wound looked like a set of...

"Bite marks? Are those bite marks?"

"Yeah. But you said you wouldn't–"

"Needy, I don't _care _what I might have said, I am freaking out! Who did this? Was it–"

"–Jennifer? Yes, it was." She fingered the wound for a moment, and then pulled her hand away, wincing in pain.

I opened my mouth, ready to ask what had happened, and then it happened. The smell of blood I hadn't noticed until now hit me like a tidal wave, the odor so all-pervading that it seemed that all other senses were lost.

"Colin?"

I stepped backwards. All of the sudden everything was wrong–my mouth was dry, my throat burning, my head pounding. That smell forced its way into my brain, blocking out every thought I might have been having.

"Colin, are you sick? What's wrong?"

"Needy...get away..." I groaned, closing my eyes and hoping that somehow, doing so would make the smell go away.

Instead of running, she took a step forward. The scent hit me twice as strong, and I opened my eyes.

My mouth opened of its own accord, and my jaw unhinged, much like it had when I had first woken up in the coroner's lab. I could feel my fangs, rows of long, needle-sharp teeth, extending.

Needy put a hand to her mouth. "Oh, my God, Colin."

I grabbed her and threw her down onto the bed, leaning over her and pausing to sniff the air. Her jugular was one attack point, but what about the stomach artery–

"Colin, _please_!" she shrieked. "Don't hurt me..."

Maybe it was her voice, or maybe some distinctly human part of me stepped in and intervened. I'm not sure what it was, but _something _made me back away. My jaw clicked back into place, my fangs receded, my brain cleared.

Needy lay on her bed, pale as chalk and shivering like a kitten left in the rain.

I stared at her for a moment as my senses returned, and I realized what I had just done.

I had been about to kill Needy.

My stomach clenched. I felt like I was going to puke, and the floor seemed to be tilting. I wanted to say I was sorry, that I'd never do it again, anything to make her stop looking at me with that fear in her eyes.

I had no words. I opened her door and bolted.

Somehow, I found myself outside of Chip's house. I must have followed his scent or something, since I'd never been there in my life. He had a tree in front of the first floor window, something that proved to be mighty useful. I grabbed one of the branches and hoisted myself up onto it. I had never been one for climbing trees when I was little, but it seemed like something a Dead Boy would do.

Inside, I could hear pots and pans banging as his mother made dinner, the sounds of his little sister running around, the quiet beat of the radio he was listening to. My chest constricted as I listened to this normal family. I'd had a normal family once.

Something broke me out of my reverie. It was the sound of twigs breaking under someone's feet. I looked down and spotted a dark figure approaching Chip's front door.

"Oh, shit," I whispered.

It was her. Jennifer Fucking Check.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, I dropped from the branch I was sitting on and landed a couple yards afraid of her.

She put her hands on her hips. "Well, look what the cat dragged in. What are you doing here? Got a totally gaysexual crush on Needy's boyfriend?"

"What are _you _doing here?" I demanded back.

She smiled. "None of your beeswax, Hot Topic. Now, why don't you get out of my way before things get unpleasant."

There was a time when one withering look from her would have sent me running down the hallway.

But–oh yeah–that was back when I had been alive and normal. Sort of.

"I'm not going to let you do to Chip what you did to me, Jennifer," I told her.

She pouted. "But _Colinnnnn_," she whined like a little girl. "I'd be doing it for YOU."

"Doing it for _me_? The hell do you mean?"

A smirk played across her heavily glossed lips. "Aren't you sick of it, Colin?"

"Sick of what?"

"Watching Chip and Needy act all coupley. Seeing them suck face like a couple of horny DustBusters. _Knowing _that Chip was poking her donut, while you...well, _weren't_."

I gritted my teeth. "You are one evil bitch, Jennifer Check."

She grinned. "Would you have me any other way?"

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter...uh, section of a chapter. God I love this movie. And I'm noticing that I'm making Jennifer more and more evil. Ah, well. PLEASE review!**


	4. Feeling Scrumptious

**Author's Note: Um...more? Summer's just started and I have had SOO much free time, so I'm gonna try to complete this story before my schedule gets packed. I AM IN DESPERATE NEED OF FEEDBACK. Thanks to those who have commented and favorited! *AAAAAH, I've been switching topics a bunch!***

**CHAPTER FOUR: Feeling Scrumptious**

It was around eight o'clock when I heard my mom come home. She wasn't often back before I fell asleep, so I clambered off my bed and ran downstairs to give her a good night/morning hug.

"Hi, Mom."

"Anita." She mussed my hair. "How's my girl?"

_I'm great, Mom. Oh–well, maybe not. Let's see...my best friend is now an evil man-eating bitch, she's killed about three guys, one of those guys turned into a...girl-eater?...and is now actually living at the house, he walked in on Chip and me boinking, and he tried to attack me. I don't know where he is right now. Best not to use the steak sauce bodywash tonight, unless you want to be his midnight snack._

"I'm fine." I smiled. "Really."

She patted me on the shoulder, and I tried not to wince. As she turned to go down the hallway, I ran back and locked the front door. For a moment, I considered lugging the umbrella stand in front of it, but that would just make my mom suspicious.

My mother wandered into the kitchen and began puttering about, fixing herself a cup of coffee.

"You shouldn't drink that before you go to sleep."

"It's okay." She pulled a white plastic bottle from the counter. "I've got my Ambien."

"I don't think you're supposed to take that with caffeine."

"I think that's just for pregnant women." She turned on the coffee maker and opened the fridge, searching through the clutter. I ducked under her and pulled out the jar of Nutella.

We sat down at the table. I grabbed a spoon from the sink and dug into the hazelnut chocolatey goodness.

"How was work?"

"Fine. What's up with you?" her sleepy eyes seemed to zero in on me.

"Up with me? N-nothing's up with me," I squeaked. Mentally, I facepalmed. My mom knew when I was lying, because I stuttered.

"Did something happen? At school?"

"We didn't have school today because of what happened to Colin. Colin Gray?"

"Oh, yeah. The goth kid. Damn shame. I just hope that killer doesn't decide to come after all the girls in town. You know, I'm going to pray before bed for you and all those other chickadees." She crossed herself.

"You do that, mom." I licked my spoon and scanned behind my mother, peering out the kitchen windows. Every shift in the dark could have been Colin or Jennifer slithering through the night, looking for God knows what.

The coffee pot had filled up with steaming liquid by now, and my mom stood up to get herself a cup. Specter scurried under my seat and rubbed himself against my leg.

"So," my mom murmured, sitting back down with her mug of coffee in tow. "Who do you think this pervert is? Someone we know?"

I shuddered. "This isn't _Clue_, mom. You can't just, like, scroll through suspects like that."

"What about that teacher? The one with the hook hand?"

I snorted, and my mom shrugged and popped a couple of Ambien, downing them with a swig of black coffee. "I doubt that."

"Maybe you're right." She sipped her coffee quietly, and I fidgeted. What if Colin had gone out to find himself a different girl? What if, right this second, he was chowing down on someone I went to school with? Suddenly my Nutella did not look so appealing. I put my spoon down.

"I think you should get to bed, Needy."

"Mom!" I protested. "It's barely eight thirty."

"I know. But you've been through a lot these past couple of days." She reached over and tucked a wisp of my hair behind my ear. "You just go get some sleep."

I stood up and stashed the Nutella away. My back was turned to my mom, and I was glad she couldn't see the faces I was making, the furrowed brow and the ghastly frown. I was so scared right now. Scared and trapped. Everyone I knew seemed to be turning against me, and I didn't know who I could tell.

Especially Colin...when he _looked _at me like that, like I was food, I was scared of course. But more than scared, I felt betrayed. Wasn't Colin the one who had promised to look after Chip? To be one of the good guys?

_Yeah, and you and Jennifer are BFFs. People are liars, Needy. Get over it. _I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, and I rushed out of the kitchen before my mom could notice.

Bounding up the stairs, I stopped at the doorway of each room and peeked inside to make sure no one was lurking in there. I felt like a mental case, but I couldn't help it. Nothing felt safe anymore.

In my own room, I made sure to lock my windows and my door. I changed into my Dalmatian pajamas and grabbed a flashlight from my desk. I wasn't sure if I would need the light, but it was a heavy metal object, and right now, arming myself with heavy metal objects seemed like a pretty good idea.

**...**

"This is getting boring," Jennifer sighed, crossing her arms. "Are you gonna, like, move? Or am I gonna have to repeat what happened a couple of nights ago?"

I remembered Jennifer dislocating my arm as though I were a ragdoll. Unpleasant images rushed to my head. Jennifer leaning over and baring her teeth, the skin on my abdomen ripping apart, lying on the floor, broken and just barely alive, watching her crouch over me and scoop the blood from my stomach, drinking it as though it were the best thing she'd ever tasted.

"You can't do this, Jennifer. Needy's your best friend, isn't she?"

"I know." She gave a big, phony sigh. "But I'm scared it'll wear off, Colin."

"What'll wear off?"

"Well...you know. When I'm full, I'm like, a super hot mama goddess, like even _more _than usual. And when I'm hungry, I look like one of those girls that shops at Ross for all her clothes and lives in a trailer."

"So, when you eat, you're pretty, and when you don't, you're ugly."

"Not only that, but when I'm full, I'm, like, indestructible."

I remembered her whipping out the wooden stick and carving a line in her arm, that emptiness in her eyes as she watched it heal.

"Yeah, I got that."

"When did you feed, Colin?" she stepped closer, scanning me with fathomless eyes. "Because you're looking pretty tasty. I mean, for an emo kid."

"Two nights ago."

"Anyone I know?"

"No. A couple of nurses."

"Mmm. Uniforms, nice." she was even closer now. I was beginning to feel pretty damn uncomfortable. This reminded me all too much of that night in the abandoned house with her, the way her lips had felt so _wrong_, not the way I'd expect Needy's to feel at all.

Before I could reply, she grabbed me by the arms and kissed me. Her mouth was hot and slick, and her teeth grazed my tongue. I shoved her back.

She sailed back a couple of yards, her back smacking against the trunk of the tree. "What is your _problem_? Am I not blond and dorky enough for you?" she hissed. "Most of your friends would pay cold hard cash to be seen kissing me."

Jennifer launched herself at me again, this time grabbing my throat. her fingernails dug into my windpipe, and she forced me onto the ground, sitting on my chest and pressing my head back into the grass.

"Remember, Colin, I've been at this longer than you have."

I thrashed around, desperate for air, but her hands were unrelenting. She giggled as I spasmed, loving every minute of my suffering.

"Aww, look at you. You're all _helpless _again."

Finally managing to find some leverage, I kneed her in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. She sprung, but I rolled out of the way and got to my feet, and when she was inches away from me, I buried my fingernails into the flesh of her cheek and carved four long, bloody lines down her face.

"You son of a _bitch_! My face!" she clutched her bloody cheek, but the wounds were already receding.

"Did you hurt Needy?" I demanded.

"What do you mean, did I hurt her? Of course I didn't! She's my bestie!"

"Then why did you fucking _bite _her?"

"To mark her."

"Why?"

She growled, a long, low primal sound. "Because she's _MINE_!"

She leapt at me again, this time with three times the ferocity she had used before. I raised up my arms to defend myself, but she grabbed me by the throat and slammed my head against the tree trunk. White hot spots of pain clouded my vision for a moment, but I managed to maneuver my foot behind hers and trip her back, giving myself enough time to get away from the tree.

Jennifer was about to lunge at me again, but we both tensed and stopped when we heard footsteps coming from inside Chip's house. The bright yellow glow of the living-room lights cast his mom's silhouette against the drapes as she lifted a hand to open them. I went sprinting off in the direction of Needy's house, and Jennifer hurried the other way. Even at the end of the street, I could hear Mrs. Dove say, "Chip, did you invite any friends over? I swear I saw some people on the front lawn a moment ago."

I didn't slow down until I was in front of Needy's house. Looking up at the second floor, I wondered if she was asleep. Would she be too scared to sleep, considering what I'd done to her? I felt like such an asshole.

Quietly, I slid around the back of the house so I was looking up at her bedroom. I stepped onto the back porch and grabbed one of the columns keeping the awning up. I shimmied up the column and crawled across the awning, until I was perched just inches from the window. Raising my hand up, I rapped on the glass with my knuckles. I pressed my forehead to the glass and peered in.

Needy was asleep on her bed, wearing baggy pajamas with what looked like leopard spots or something on them. She stirred, and hugged something she'd been holding tighter to her chest. I recognized it as one of those big, industrial steel flashlights.

I knocked again, and this time her eyes opened. She saw me and instinctively cringed away, perching at the foot of her bed so she could be as far from me as possible.

"Needy," I whispered, my breath fogging on the glass. "Please let me in."

Mutely, she shook her head. I sighed.

"Listen, I'm _really _sorry about what happened. But I promise, I wouldn't have hurt you. I just...lost control for a moment. I'm not used to this."

She was looking down at her bunny-slipper clad feet. I wondered if I looked scary, too frightening to look in the eye.

"Let me in, Needy. I need to tell you something. Something really important." I pressed my palm against the glass. "_Please_, Needy. I swear I won't touch you."

For a minute, she was still as a statue. Then she stood up and marched over to the window, wrenching it open. I slid in through the opening and got onto her bedroom floor, landing on my feet this time. All the while, she brandished the flashlight like a weapon. I held up my hands, like I was being arrested.

"I didn't think you'd come back," she told me. There was a tiny bit of a tremor to her voice.

"I wasn't sure if I would either. But I needed to apologize." I dropped my hands and fidgeted with my rosary. "I'm so, so sorry, Needy. I didn't want to hurt you. I'd never hurt you."

She eyed me a little bit warily. "I want to believe you. I do. But first Jennifer, and then you–it's a lot to handle." She lowered the flashlight a couple of inches and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. I watched the way it caught the light, wishing I wouldn't notice these things. Hadn't I promised to protect her boyfriend, of all people?

"I understand. And you've been...pretty good about it."

The ghost of a smile passed over her lips for a moment, and then it was gone. "I'm really worried, though, Colin. Jennifer's been dropping all these _hints _about Chip, and–"

I held up a hand to silence her. "Actually, there's something you should know. After I left, I went to Chip's place...I'm not sure why, I guess I just felt like I owed it to you to check on him. And Jennifer was there."

She dropped the flashlight. It landed centimeters from her foot and rolled away. "W-what?" she breathed, eyes wide and terrified. "And Chip?"

"He's fine," I assured her. "She's backed off, for tonight at least. But there's something else." I eyed her shoulder, trying to ignore the faint residual smell of blood. "She bit you for a reason."

"Why?" From the look on her face, it didn't seem as though she could take anymore bad news.

"She said she'd marked you. That you were hers. I don't really know what that means, but I'm guessing it's nothing good."

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Needy sank down onto the edge of her bed. I stopped myself from smiling. I wasn't accustomed to hearing her curse. "So what am I–I mean, what are we–what should I–" she broke off, the tremor in her voice out of control, and I realized she was crying.

I almost wanted to say _don't cry, Needy, everything'll be alright_, but, of course, that would all be one big lie. Instead, I sat next to her on the bed and hesitantly reached out to touch her arm. _You said you wouldn't touch her_, I reminded myself. My hand stopped, but she reached for it anyway, entwining my fingers with hers. Her hand felt ice cold compared to mine, and the feeling of her pulse thudding beneath her skin was an odd contrast to my lifelessness.

Had I still been alive, my Inner Colin would have been jumping around, singing _"I'm holding hands with Needy Lesnicki! I'm holding hands with Needy Lesnicki!"_

I really needed to stop thinking about being alive.

She raised her head up so our eyes met. Two fat tears streaked down her cheeks. "I just don't know what to do, Colin," she whispered. "I don't know who to trust."

I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "I wish I could be a better person to trust, Needy. I feel like I've failed you."

"Don't." She shook her head. "You've been good to me. You've looked after Chip, and you-you _stopped _yourself. I don't know if Jennifer would have stopped herself."

"She didn't," I reminded her glumly.

Needy let out a half-sob, half-laugh. "I guess not." For a few moments, she was silent, and I heard her breathing calm down. Through her fingers, I could sense her pulse slowing down. I breathed a slow breath of relief. I could barely smell the blood in the room anymore, because it had been replaced with that scent that was so specifically Needy-esque: the smell of floral shampoo and clean sheets and warmth. Impulsively, I pressed my face against her neck, inhaling more of that delicious smell. I felt her stiffen against me, wondering if I would attack, but she relaxed as my nose glided along her throat. She ducked her head down so the tips of our noses were touching, and gently pressed her mouth to mine.

Wow. Fireworks. Cherry bombs. Exploding unicorns. Mental overload.

For a moment, we just stayed there, lips locked. Had my heart still been beating, it would have been thumping like a snare drum. My whole body felt as though it were on some kind of insane roller-coaster ride, euphoria zinging through me.

I was kissing Needy.

She was kissing me back.

The world was a good place.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and slid on top of me, legs astride my waist. I felt a rush of heat (hotter than the rest of my body, which was already pretty damn hot) go to my groin, and the lame, realistic part of me wondered how I could still get a boner if I didn't have a pulse.

One of my hands tangled in her hair, the other rested on the small of her back, feeling her lithe body through the silky pajama top. She sighed against my lips, and I parted hers with my tongue, sliding it inside the hot, wet cave of her mouth. She moaned gently in pleasure and rolled on to her back, pulling me on top of her. I pressed my body against hers, clinging to her.

For a few more excellent moments, we stayed that way, connected. And then she straightened out underneath me and pulled away.

"Wait. We can't do this," she panted. "What am I doing?"

I rolled onto my side to allow her some space, and she stood up and began pacing. "Why are you doing this?" she murmured to herself. "Get a _grip_, girl! You have a boyfriend."

I bit the inside of my lip to resist the impulse to tell her to let her boyfriend go to hell and get back over here. A selfish part of me was unhappy with her for denying me the pleasure (I still had a pretty huge hard-on, and I suspected this would soon turn to Dead Boy blue-balls), and another part of me, a more rational one, understood that she had reached out to me simply because I was there.

_Stop it_, I thought. _Needy's going through enough as it is. You can't be all pushy and shit at a time like this._

She had paused in her pacing and turned to me. "I'm sorry, Colin. I didn't mean to, like, start anything–"

"It's okay. I get it," I replied, fighting to keep my voice from sounding irritated or unhappy.

"Something's just..._different _about you. It's the same with Jennifer. You're both, like, _oozing _pheromones," she murmured.

I laughed. "Oozing pheromones? That sounds delightful."

She grinned. "You know what I mean. It's so weird." She studied me for a moment with a furrowed brow, and then sobered up. "Anyway, I didn't mean to be a total slut or anything, and I'm sorry if I startled you."

"It's fine. Really." I stood up. "I should go."

Her hand shot out and grabbed mine. "Please, don't." The laughter had left her eyes, and they were wide with fear again. "I promised you that you could stay here. Besides, I'm still a little freaked out. So just stay with me. Nothing has to happen."

For a moment, I mulled it over: there was the smart choice (smart=BAD), which would be leaving the fiery sex trap that was Needy's room so's I wouldn't give myself over to my horndog teenage boy tendencies and do something unwise. And then there was the dumb choice (dumb=GOOD), which was staying because then maybe Needy would still want to fu–I mean, because she needed the consolation.

"I'll stay."

Dumb=good, remember?

**...**

I fell asleep that night with Colin Gray lying next to me. It was funny; I had one class with him, and aside from that, we had been very casual friends. But now, with this new side of him emerging, I could tell that our fates had begun to entwine, for better or for worse.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I=COCKBLOCK. I would have had them cast aside all their inhibitions and bang like a couple of horny bunnies, but honestly, if I were in that situation, I would stop and think for a moment. Also, I can tell from the movie that Colin isn't the type of guy to take advantage of Needy's situation...I think. (He can take advantage of MY situation anytime, hehehe). PLEASE REVIEW! I only have 2 reviews, and AH NEEDZ MOAR!**


	5. Vermin and Death

**CHAPTER FIVE: Vermin and Death**

When I woke up, Colin was sitting on the floor next to my side of the bed, reading one of my books. I sat up a little, blushing when I remembered the night before.

_Not cool, Lesnicki, _the Amish girl in the back of my head told me. _You're taken, remember?_

"Morning." Colin grinned at me. I felt like I needed to catch my breath. Everything about him seemed to have become brighter in my vision, like a camera with the exposure turned up. Since when had he had this effect on me? It was a headrush, a dizzying feeling. I stood up quickly and kicked off my bunny slippers.

"Where are you going?"

"School. I need to talk to Chip."

"Ah." I strained to hear any kind of tone in his voice: sadness? Jealousy? I couldn't hear anything.

"I'm gonna, uh, shower now. I'll be back home as soon as possible. I guess you should...stay here? Or maybe not. My mom sleeps through most of the day. She probably won't come up here, but I'm really not sure what she'll do."

"I'll be careful," he promised, the tiniest hint of a smile in his voice. I found myself smiling back without hesitation. I turned around and opened my closet door, rummaging through my clothes. Behind me, I could hear his quiet breath, his fingers turning the pages of the book. I remembered those same fingers in my hair last night, and the room suddenly felt too small to contain the both of us. I slipped out.

In the shower, I turned the water up as hot as it went and scrubbed my skin raw under the steaming stream.

I knew that this dynamic couldn't work forever. Colin would run into my mom eventually, and who knew what she would do? Besides, I had Jennifer and Chip to worry about, along with any other male in the student body, potentially. And on _top _of that, Low Shoulder was getting world press for their shitty pop song and thriving off the fame they had gleaned from Jen's death. I pressed my forehead against the cool tile shower wall. What ever happened to the sandbox days, when every story seemed to end with the good guys winning?

When I stepped out of the shower, the difference in temperature made me feel light-headed. Leaning against the wall, I touched the still-tender bite mark on my shoulder. The wound had scabbed over, hopefully sealing away the smell of blood. The memory of Colin hovering over me, teeth sharp as knives and eyes drained of all emotion, sent a shiver down my spine.

_But he _is _a good guy_, I promised myself. _He didn't...hurt me. He wouldn't. And he'll help me do what it takes to deep-six Jennifer._

Respectively, it could have been denial that made me think that. But who cared? A little denial was what it took for me to actually garner up the courage to leave the bathroom and face another day at school.

**...**

The school library smelled musty and forgotten. It was a little depressing, how few people in Devil's Kettle actually bothered to read. Through a shitload of searching and roughly half an hour spent thumbing through the card catalogues, I found the Occult section of the library.

The Occult section was about ten books. I read the titles, stroking dusty spines. My eyes landed on one that looked promising: _Dæmons._

Flicking through yellowed pages, I found a chapter called _The Incubi and the Succubi: Dæmons of Temptation._

_Dæmons draw the majority of their power by feeding off of human weaknesses. In most cases, they root out the greed, the anger, any infallibility in the victim's nature, much like a prisoner finding instability in a fence. In the case of the Incubus and the Succubus, the weakness is human lust._

_The dæmon will manifest itself in the form of a female, a Succubus, or a male, an Incubus._

That would make Colin an Incubus. I read on.

_The dæmon will seduce the victim and consume them. With the mortal's blood in their body, their power will grow. To a human, the dæmon will appear to be extremely sexually appealing, leaving it to pick its prey with relative ease._

That explained Jennifer.

_The Succubi and the Incubi have a way of breeding much like that of the black widow spider. As the Succubus is infertile, one of her victims will survive the feeding process by taking her blood into his body. The blood transfer may be purposeful or accidental. In any case, the Incubus will rise from the grave with enhanced senses and speed, as well as the hunger for human flesh and blood._

So basically, Colin had taken some of Jennifer's blood into his body somehow, and he had survived her mauling him and risen from the dead. And now, he was like a male Jennifer.

Only good. For now.

What would happen when he got hungrier? I struggled to push that thought out of my mind as I read on.

_For the Succubus, her powers are strongest if she has fed on a waxing moon, whereas the Incubus is at his most powerful if he has fed on a waning moon._

Waning moon, waning moon...I tapped my fingers against the desk. I felt as though this was important. What was the moon like last night? I didn't even remember.

I went to the librarian and checked out the book. She eyed me a little strangely, but handed it over without asking. I shoved it into my backpack and hurried out.

Halfway down the hall, Chip called my name.

"Hey, babe."

"Chip." I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. It felt wrong going straight for the lips after what had happened last night.

"Wanna come over tonight? Mom's making mac n' cheese pie."

"That's such a tempting offer. I'll call home after school and ask."

He smiled. "Sweet. Hey, are you alright?"

"Huh?" My hand flew to my face. "Yeah. Why?"

"You seem distracted."

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just...tired. I didn't sleep too well," I lied. I had slept better than I had in a long time, feeling the warmth of Colin's body chase away the cool night.

He put his arm around me. "Are you still freaking out about what happened with Colin?"

I froze for a second. He knew about Colin being an Incubus?

_No, wait, stupid. He means Colin "dying". _"I dunno, I guess. I mean, I had classes with him and all."

"Oh." I heard a little jealousy in Chip's tone. "Were you two close?"

"N-no. Not really. He was a nice guy and all, but it's m-mostly just thinking about what happened to him." I hoped Chip didn't know about the whole stuttering-when-I-lied thing.

"Yeah. Who could have done something like that?" he murmured as we walked down the hall, passing people still dressed in black. Black had become somewhat of our school dress code since what had happened with Jonas and Colin.

I turned the corner, almost bumping into Chastity, who was decked out in her Low Shoulder garb, as usual.

"Watch it, Lesnicki!" she yelped.

"Sorry," I called over my shoulder. I watched her strut away. If she could have only known what that band of guy-linered creeps had done.

**...**

One thing about being a Dead Boy: it's kind of dull when you're all by yourself.

I paced around Needy's room, perused her books, fell asleep on her bed and woke up feeling like a creep. I entertained myself for awhile by climbing up her wall and onto the cieling, but standing upside-down gave me a headache, and I let myself drop. I cornered her ferret and rubbed its stomach until it ferret-purred. I fell asleep again.

All the while, I remembered what Jennifer had said to me.

What did she mean, Needy was hers? Was Needy her property? Her mate? Her servant? Is that what the bite signified? Or was it the Dead Girl alternative of a dog peeing on a tree?

When thinking about that proved to be too depressing, I thought about my current situation. How long could I live a life of secrecy in Needy's bedroom? I would get discovered eventually, and even if I didn't, Needy didn't need me hovering around in her life. She had way too many problems to deal with without me being there.

I hiked up my shirt and looked down at my stomach. The havoc Jennifer had wreaked on my stomach was still there, the flesh darker and slightly raised. If a Dead Girl bit me, would it never heal?

My train of thought was lost as Needy's bedroom door swung open. Needy stood there, clutching a thick book.

"Colin, you need to read this. This is important." She flung the book at me, and my Dead Boy reflexes were the only thing that kept me from catching it before it broke my nose. _Where was that hand-eye coordination when I was catching volleyballs with my face left, right and center in P.E? _I wondered briefly as I opened the book.

"I flagged the chapter you should read."

Paging through the volume, I found a chapter with the page folded down. I read the small, cramped-looking text, feeling Needy's eyes on my face as I did.

When I was done, I put the book down.

"So I'm..."

"A male sex demon?" she volunteered.

"Yeah, I got that much."

"And you're, like, her demonic babydaddy. Not in the literal sense, because she can't get knocked up. But the Sucubus is supposed to carry on the demon's bloodline by letting one of her male victims transform."

"Do you think she did this on purpose?" I demanded.

"No, probably not." Needy took off her glasses and wiped them on the hem of her sweater. "Jennifer doesn't know any of this. It was probably totally accidental. But she's seen you, so she's probably got a pretty good idea of what's happened."

"And the bite she gave you? What did she mark you for?"

Needy stopped with the glasses and set them down slowly on the bedside table. "That's the part I'm confused about. I couldn't find out anything about it in the book."

"Well, at least we know this much." I steepled my fingers together and watched Needy. Her eyes flickered everywhere but to mine. "Needy, about what happened last night..."

"I really don't think we should talk about it, Colin." She was twisting her hands around. "I shouldn't have responded the way I did. I wasn't thinking."

"Needy..." I trailed off. I wasn't even sure what I was going to say next. _Go on with it, Colin. Tell her how you feel. Watch her laugh in your face._

"I'm sorry, Colin. I didn't mean to do what I did. Right now, I've just been so worried and everything..."

"It's fine. I understand," I told her, struggling to keep the anger out of my voice.

For a moment, everything between us was silent. And then my stomach grumbled.

Needy started to laugh, and then stopped. "You're hungry."

"I...guess." It was strange; I hadn't felt hungry since I had escaped from the coroner's office.

"Are you gonna try to, you know, eat me?" she backed up a step. I stood up, and she winced.

"No, I'm not. Honestly. Human flesh doesn't sound that appetizing right now."

"Oh." Her body relaxed. "Do you want some...human food?"

I laughed. "Human food sounds nice."

"Yeah." She grinned. "I'm pretty hungry too. Let's go down to the kitchen. My mom should be asleep."

I followed her down the stairs and to her kitchen. As soon as I walked through the doorway, a strange smell assaulted me. It was old, perhaps months old, but still strong enough to place.

"Jennifer's been in here, hasn't she? After she turned."

"Yeah." Needy shuddered as she walked to the fridge. "It was the night Melody Lane burned down. She came over and puked up this weird black stuff. It was prickly and moving and..."

"That happened to me too, when I first woke up."

Needy made a face. "Spiky puke. Yum." She closed the fridge door and opened the freezer, pulling out a package of ground beef. "I'm gonna go ahead and make dinner so it's ready when my mom wakes up. I was thinking of making spaghetti bolognese. That sound okay?"

"Yeah. It's fine." I looked down at the kitchen tiles. The faintest of black stains lingered on the grout.

The kitchen was silent as Needy cooked. Every time I opened my mouth to say something, I worried it would somehow lead back to what had happened the night before, and I closed it again. Finally, she came over with two steaming bowls of spaghetti, and placed one in front of me. She sat down across from me and picked up her fork.

"I didn't know you could cook."

"Aww, it ain't all that." She gave a lopsided smile and began to eat. I picked up my own fork and took a bite.

All the flavors, the pasta, the sauce and whatnot were there. They all registered to me the exact same as they would have had I been alive. But something was wrong. It tasted terrible and dead in my mouth. I forced myself to swallow so as not to hurt her feelings and put my fork down.

"Is it bad? I'm sorry."

"No, it's good. It's just...wrong."

"Wrong?"

"I'm not supposed to eat human food, I think." I put a hand to my forehead.

"So, what? You should go out and catch yourself a hormonal teenage girl?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. Shit." I stood up and scraped the food in my bowl back into the pot. I felt like a jerk, but I couldn't stomach another mouthful of that horrible taste.

"Wait, Colin. I have an idea." Needy got up and retrieved something from the freezer: the raw ground beef she hadn't used. She waved it in front of my face. "Um, does this look, like, good or anything?"

"Not particularly."

"Why? It's meat. Same as a human...well...sort of."

"It's kind of...frozen."

"If I thawed it out, would you eat it?"

I put a hand to my forehead. "I can't believe this is happening."

"But would you?" she persisted.

"Maybe."

"Then let's try it." She put it on a plate and popped it in the microwave for a few minutes. When it was done, she pulled it out, wincing as the hot plate burned her fingers. A hunk of raw meat about the size of a hamburger patty sat on the plate. It was bubblegum pink and bloody-looking and it smelled...really good.

"How about that?"

I broke off a piece and put it in my mouth. The meat tasted the way Needy's blood smelled. I would have been revolted, but something inside me told me this was what I was supposed to be eating.

"I...think I can eat this."

"Yes!" she cried out, doing a little happy dance.

"Why are you so glad about this?"

"_Duh_, Colin." She smirked. "This means you won't have to resort to eating _me_."

"Oh."

Needy took the plate and put it down where I'd been sitting. She sat down and resumed eating. I began to chew on the meat after a moment.

What a strange picture we must have made: a cute blond girl eating a bowl of spaghetti and a pale, pierced boy in black eating raw meat with his fingers. I licked the juice from my fingers, and I realized Needy had been looking at my mouth.

"Something wrong?"

"No." She rested her cheek against her hand, propping her elbow up on the table. "I'm just thinking about this. About us. About everything."

About us?

Thank God Inner Colin was there to slap me on the wrist. _What did she tell you? Quit thinking with your dick._

Inner Me was right. With so much on my plate, why could I only think about the girl sitting across the table from me?

**A/N: Maybe it's been awhile since my last update, and for that, I'm sorry. I hope you liked it. I wanted to write this scene because I just pictured how odd it would be: Colin and Needy having a meal together, considering all that's happened. I also want to thank all the people that have added this to their Story Watch thingy. I get the email updates, and they always motivate me to keep on writing this. I'm pretty busy, so I can't guarantee the next update'll be super quick, but there will _be _one. Oh, and expect more characters to start appearing in this story!**


	6. The Ruins Left Inside You

**CHAPTER SIX: The Ruins Left Inside You**

**Two Weeks Later**

_There was a quiet rustling. Feet moving through dew-slicked grass. Long legs and arms, a mane of hair darker than shadow. Lips smirked. Red lips. Not the kind of red you could slather on: this was legitimate red. Blood red._

_Fresh blood red._

_Arms and legs pinned down a warm body. Brown hair hung in front of puzzled eyes. Lips parted to protest, but the red lips closed down on them. Hips rocked in unison, but shoulders tensed and mouths pulled away._

_Quiet, quiet words. "This just...feels weird."_

_Again with the bloody mouth, clamping down like a torture device, squeezing all resistance away. The ripe moon rose in the sky, and the starry night was filled with the gentle smell of tamed wildflowers._

_Soon, the night would smell only of blood._

I didn't even realize I was screaming until Colin was above me, touching my face.

"Needy, wake up. Needy!"

With a strangled sound, my mouth clicked itself shut, cutting off the rest of the shattering cry. I drew my knees up to my chest and pressed myself against the headboard of my bed, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

Colin carefully came forward on the bed, placing his hands on either side of my hot, damp face. I felt stupid, strange and crazy, but I let myself cry. Loud, pealing, ugly sobs tore through my stomach and chest, each breath feeling like dry cement against my lungs. Tears dropped onto the skin of Colin's forearm, and I half-watched as they slowly evaporated, like a clip on the Nature Channel put in fast forward.

"I had a d-dream..." I croaked. "J-J-Jennifer and Chip..."

I found I couldn't talk any more as more sobs closed over me. Colin leaned back to look at me. His hands fell away from me, and if I hadn't known better, I would have sworn he was blushing.

A gentle rapping at my door startled both of us. "Needy? You okay?"

It was my mother's voice, foggy from hours of The Night Shift and probably a near caffeine overdose, considering the amount of coffee she ingested. Colin froze, eyes wide as a cat's.

"Hide," I hissed, brushing the last of my tears away.

He darted off my bed, tripped on a tennis shoe lying in the middle of the floor, and landed in fashionably emo heap. My raw throat bubbled with nervous laughter.

The door opened. "Mom!" I shrieked. "It isn't what it–"

"Needy, did you have a nightmare?" My mom came forward and sat at the edge of my bed.

I looked around wildly. Colin had been lying on my floor only seconds before. Now I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Yeah...it was just a...a bad dream," I stammered.

She cracked her neck. She looked exhausted, and I felt a little guilty. "You scared the crap out of me. I thought that crazy killer'd broken in or something."

"Sorry." I glanced up.

Holy shit.

Colin was _on the ceiling._

Mom's head started to tilt upward. "Is something up there?"

"Uh...no! Nothing." Desperately trying to distract her, I lunged forward and grabbed her in a bear hug. "I f-feel much better now."

She hugged me back, and for a moment I melted into the embrace. With Colin, I felt as though we were both stepping around what had happened, and for that reason I couldn't let myself relax too much. But around my mom, my emotions were all too visible, like the new flesh under an open wound.

When my mom pulled away, she smiled uncertainly at me. "Well, I hope you have sweet dreams, Anita," she murmured. "God knows you deserve them." She kissed me on the forehead and stood up, walking out of the room without looking at the ceiling again. The moment the door closed, Colin dropped from the ceiling like a hot rock and landed with a _thunk_.

I couldn't help laughing. "Are you alright?"

He got to his feet. "Yeah. Just...wait." For a moment, he seemed uncertain on his feet. "Being upside-down is _not _fun. And now I have a head rush." He shook his head and blinked a couple of times, before sitting down at the edge of my bed. "So what did you dream about?"

I combed my fingers through my hair, struggling to remember the nightmarish details. "I was...seeing through Jen's eyes, I think. She was walking in the woods. Somewhere with a lot of trees. And Chip was there." I paused and took a raggedy breath. "Then she was _kissing _him."

Looking up, I saw Colin gnawing on his lip. His lip ring glinted in the low light. I recalled the slight, silvery taste of it against my tongue.

"You're really convinced, aren't you?" he said softly. "You're sure Jennifer's going after Chip."

"Yeah. I am." Even I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded.

He picked at his nails, flecking the black varnish. I yawned and checked my clock. It was two A.M. "I'm going back to sleep," I announced.

Colin gave a small smile. "Sweet dreams."

I turned on my side and felt Colin's weight on the bed shift as he stood up and went to stand by the window. Motes of bluish moonlight illuminated his face. His skin was pale as porcelain, and his messy black hair hung down in front of his eyes like a curtain, so that I couldn't tell what he was looking at.

I hoped he was looking at me.

I feared he was looking at me.

Truth be told, I didn't know how I felt about him looking at me.

Colin had been staying at my house, in my room, for around three weeks. We had our own off-kilter sort of schedule. I went to school and when I came home, he was usually in my room. If he wasn't, he came in through the window soon enough. I didn't know where he went while I was stuck in class, but a couple times I had sworn I'd seen a figure sitting in the tallest tree branches of the woods around school, or standing next to the bleachers at lunchtime. Every time I passed the Dead Kids, I instinctively quickened my pace. I was paranoid, I knew, but I swore their heavily lined eyes followed me.

Jonas and Colin's shrines were cluttered with photos and pieces of paper on which students had scrawled teary messages.

Somehow, I could never think of anything to write for Jonas. I had barely known him. He was one of the Jen oglers, naturally, and a star quarterback. That was about the end of what I knew about him.

And why would I bother writing anything to Colin, when he was there, at my house, when I got home?

Conversation flowed easily between us when we were alone in my room. Neither of us wanted to mention what had happened, and so we discussed everything else. I had, over time, forced myself to conclude that

A) Colin's appeal was solely based on the fact that he was a male sex demon who was supposed to lure in prey through seduction

B) I had been totally unhinged when I came onto him, and

C) Okay, scratch option A. Even without his strange Incubus-seduction-powers-thingy, Colin _was _kind of cute

That didn't mean I _liked_ him or anything. Colin + Needy = Needy-loaf. Not such a pretty picture. I had a boyfriend. Chip. Chipchipchipchipchip. Chip + Needy = True-ass love.

Or at least, that's what I'd been trying to convince myself. The more time I spent with Colin, the guiltier I felt around Chip. But I couldn't help it. It was as though someone had thrown a switch inside me. I couldn't stop the strange attraction I felt around him, the desire to put my inhibitions aside and finish what we'd started that night.

I pretended to close my eyes and squinted through my lashes at him. His cheekbones had gradually grown sharper and sharper, and the brightness had begun to fade from his eyes, leaving them a dead, stormcloud gray. His lips were chapped. Purplish half-moons hung under his eyes.

Colin's powers were waning. He hadn't fed for awhile, and it was starting to take effect.

Somehow, he needed to find some form of sustenance, because I had seen Jen's inability to control herself. Both of them were prisoners of the blood lust, and I didn't know when Colin would try to attack me again.

**...**

"What's the matter?" I asked.

Needy didn't look up from her English homework. "Nothing."

"I don't believe you," I replied.

She stayed silent for awhile. I sat at the edge of her desk, where she was reading a paperback. I saw the title: _Romeo and Juliet._ "Is that what they're asking you to read?"

"Yeah. I think it's kind of lame."

"Really?"

Needy finally looked up. "Yeah. I mean, don't you? It's a classic case of two teenagers' hormones running rampant and leading to dastardly consequences."

"And while that's true, it's very well-written." I twisted my rosary around my wrist. " 'O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear/Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! As yonder lady o'er fellows shows/The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand/And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.' "

Needy watched me with a faint smile on her lips. "I figured you'd know this play. You're really into all this romance and tragedy and death stuff."

"Maybe."

"My favorite part is when she and Romeo see each other for the first time."

I peeked over her shoulder. " 'If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this/My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand/To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.' "

Another smile. And then Needy began to read. " 'Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much/Which mannerly devotion shows in this/For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch/And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.' "

I saw the next line. If my heart still had a beat, it would have been pounding like a jackhammer. " 'H-have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?' "

Needy must have sensed my hesitation, because she looked at me briefly before pushing her glasses up her nose and continuing to read. " 'Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.' "

I took a quick breath and continued. " 'O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands to/They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.' "

" 'Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.' "

" 'Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take/Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.' "

" 'Then have my lips the sin that they have took.' "

Needy closed her book and set it down somewhat shakily. I put a finger under her chin and tipped her face upward so our eyes could meet, and carefully took off her glasses. Leaning down, I kissed her mouth. Her lips were soft and warm against mine, and my tongue swept against her bottom lip, begging for entrance.

For a second, her mouth engaged. And then she gently pulled away.

It was not frantic and worried as it had been before. She simply turned away. "Jesus Christ, Colin. I can't control myself around you."

"Needy..."

She turned around.

Before I could stop myself, I blurted it out. "Do you know how long I've liked you?"

Her eyes widened.

"Come on, don't tell me you're surprised. I thought I was pretty shitty at hiding it." I paused and took a breath. "Freshman year, Needy. I've liked you–maybe even more than liked you–since freshman year. And when you got with Chip, I figured I'd just back off. But now this has happened, and I feel like you're my only link to...to reality. To humanity."

"Then why did you ask out Jennifer?" she demanded.

"I wanted to make you jealous." I gave a brittle laugh. "Brilliant plan, huh? Look how well it ended up for me."

She was silent for a moment. She sat down.

"This is such a fucked-up situation. I've been so..._drawn _to you lately. I don't know what it is. I mean, three weeks ago, Chip was my world. And now I feel like I'm with him for his own safety. To protect him. And he's in trouble. I can't abandon him when he's in that much danger. God, I think I'm certifiably insane." She laughed, but it was shaky, and the corners of her mouth twitched downwards.

I got up off her desk and stood behind her, hands on the back of her chair. "Needy, I'm a cannibalistic sex demon. You've got nothin' on me."

She giggled and then sobered. "I...I feel like I've treated you like shit," she sighed.

"Why? Because we didn't sleep together? Really, Needy, I understand." I ran a hand through my hair. "We've both had rough breaks."

I saw that she had gotten up for her chair. "We have. You're right." She turned to me. "Maybe we don't have to be done...with eachother."

She reached for me, and I made up my mind.

I wouldn't do this to her, or to Chip. I wouldn't become some undead Other Guy, the guy who ends up ruining everything, no matter how much I wanted to surrender to what had been building up between us.

"Needy, you have a boyfriend."

I watched her pause, shoulders heaving.

"But I _want _you, Colin. And you want me."

"I'm not sure where you're going with this." Okay, big fat lie. I had a pretty good idea of it. But Needy had never seemed like the kind of girl who did impulsive things. This seemed more like Jennifer's territory.

"Bull," she whispered. She stood up and shoved the chair back, almost knocking me on my ass. "Don't keep changing your mind about things. One minute you're all over me, and then you're all _'Needy, you have a boyfriend!'_."

I felt a hot lump rising in my throat. "_I'm _changing my mind? How about you?"

"_Fuck _you, Colin! Half the time you want to plow me, half the time you want to eat me!"

"Hey, I stopped myself! That's more than you can say for Jennifer. And who's been watching over your precious Chip all this time?"

Needy picked _Romeo and Juliet _up and threw it at me.

"Hey, what the–"

She grabbed a tennis shoe off the floor and did the same. I covered my face with my arms to ward off any other projectiles.

"Get _out_! Get _out_!" she shrieked. "I have had _enough _of you! And Jen too! I don't even remember what it's like to live normally anymore!"

"Newsflash, princess: I'm not exactly living the dream here either!" I retorted.

Right after I said it, I felt something steal through me. Something I had only ever felt twice.

Once, in a cold, sterilized hospital morgue, starting at two nurses.

Once in a teenage girl's bedroom, pinning down a terrified, bespectacled blond who smelled tantalizingly of blood.

It was the urge to hurt. To destroy.

Maybe it stemmed from my hunger, or maybe just from my frustration. What mattered was, it was damn powerful. And it was controlling me. I looked at Needy and didn't see the girl I'd been in love with through high school, a girl who one never knew how to approach without frightening her off, a girl who would run like a startled fawn or attack like a lioness in heat.

I saw blood. Flesh. Food.

I turned away and hurried to the window, wrenching it open.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" she shrieked. "You think you can just run off like that?" I felt one of her hands grab my wrist.

Bad move, Needy. I whirled around and snarled at her, my fangs jumping out. She stopped and released my wrist like it was a poisonous snake. Stepping back, she stared at me with terror in her eyes.

I ducked out her window and leapt out onto the lawn, scurrying away. I didn't look back to see if she was watching me go, because I knew I'd be temped to run back.

**A/N: OH NO! Trouble in Colin and Needy Land! I had originally written this as an argument with a much better ending (read: SEX SCENE). Then I decided it would be too drippy and Edward-and-Bella. This argument was a bit difficult to write, but I think it turned out pretty well. It's just kind of about Needy and Colin letting everything in the back of their minds come out, because off all the stress they've been under. Anyways, R&R or I won't update :D!**


	7. Skinny and Twisted and Evil

**CHAPTER SEVEN: Skinny and Twisted and Evil**

Nikolai took off his shades and rubbed them against the material of his new leather jacket. The sun seemed irritatingly bright that morning, and he had a monster hangover.

"Nik!"

The singer looked up. Dirk, his bass slung over one shoulder, motioned for him to follow. The van had parked outside the back entrance of the hotel so as to ensure a quick escape, since the lobby was flooded with rabid fans.

Nikolai put his sunglasses back on and followed the bass player into the white car, sliding the door shut behind him. The rest of the band members lounged in the back of the van, amongst amps, instruments and Satanist paraphernalia.

"What the hell was that all about, Nik?" Dirk demanded the moment Nikolai gunned the engine.

"What was _what _about?"

"That damn interview we gave! You didn't let anyone else get a word in."

Nikolai reached over and gave Dirk a playful noogie. "Oh, silly Dirk. People want to hear _me _talk. They don't give a monkey's ass about what you have to say."

Dirk shook his head disbelievingly and switched on the radio. The Cure flooded the vehicle. "I thought we were in this for the music, man," he grumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nik shot back.

"I mean, you're more interested in having your face on the cover of _Rolling Stone_."

"Um, hello? Who fucking doesn't?" Nikolai retorted. They rounded the corner.

He was silent for a moment, scratching at the stubble on his chin. There had been a poll among the fans at the interview about his look. Fifty three percent liked his 'bad boy' look, the other forty seven lobbied hard for a more clean cut image. A few girls got into an intense argument and had to be escorted out by security.

"This is getting boring," he announced, just as Robert Smith trilled out the final verse of the song.

"_I don't care if Monday's blue/Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too/Thursday I don't care about you/It's Friday I'm in love..._"

"What is?"

"The fame, the fortune. Y'know."

Dirk slapped the dashboard. The other band members looked on in interest. "I can't believe you, Nik. Two months ago, this was everything you wanted. And now it's boring?"

"It's just...not enough. We're getting too comfortable. We need to do something major."

"What? Like kill another virgin?"

Nikolai grinned. He'd been practicing his wolfish pretty-boy smile in the mirror all morning, so as to be ready for the paparazzi. "There's an idea."

A muscle jumped in Dirk's jaw.

"Yeah. Okay, so Jenny from the Block got us this far. How far do you think her friend would get us?"

"Who, the blonde?"

"Yeah. Jan Brady."

Dirk turned to look out the window, at the buildings that passed him by. He recalled the night at Melody Lane, the night that seemed a thousand years ago.

_"What about her?" Nikolai gestured towards the two girls that had approached them._

_Dirk's eye strayed to the blondie. She was busy with the pinball machine, but he still got a nice view of her: petite and ethereal with all that curly hair floating around. She seemed almost too gentle, too innocent to be in some sleazy dive bar, surrounded by the redneck masses._

_"Who, Jan Brady?"_

_"No. Fuck you. Her." Nik pointed to her raven-haired friend. "The Statefield Butter Princess. The one who's buying me alcohol."_

_"Oh." Dirk tried not to sound too disappointed. So Nik wasn't interested in the blonde at all...what was her name? Amelia? Alicia?_

_Nik followed his line of vision. "Hey, someone's checking out Polyanna."_

_"Shut up." Dirk shoved him away._

_"Hey, man. It's fine. She is kind of cute, in that girl-next-door way." Nik licked his lips, and Dirk wanted to sock him. He didn't know what it was, but she had some sort of j'ne sais quoi sex appeal to her. Something that reminded him of the days when Low Shoulder was really just a bunch of friends wearing their sisters' eyeliner, jamming in the school caf. When you were never brave enough to meet the eye of any of the cute girls watching you play, but secretly hoping they were all looking at you..._

"You sure she's a virgin?" Dirk found himself asking.

"You kidding?" Nik snorted. A Ramones song came on.

"_Met her at the Burger King/Fell in love by the soda machine..._"

**...**

I think it was around three in the morning. I walked down the side of a back road, the chilly night air skimming the surface of my consciousness but not penetrating. A few cars passed me by, and I kept my face hidden in the hood of my sweatshirt.

I remembered eighth grade, when my friends and I had first taken tabs of ecstasy. We were at a poetry reading, and figured it would be a cool, artistic thing to do. There was the feeling of instability, as though the ground were being slowly pulled away from you. Everything was shattered and twisted and refracting, like my eyes had turned to kaleidoscopes, watching as blurry patterns repeated endlessly.

The feeling of not being able to hold onto something was all too familiar. I staggered off the side of the road and into the thick woods. Leaning against a tree trunk, I slid to the ground. My body ached, my muscles slackened. My breath came with difficulty.

I was so goddamn _hungry_.

I let my eyes flutter closed. Sleep felt like the only thing I could do right now, seeing as I could barely move. Maybe I would feel well enough to try to get back to Needy's in the morning...that is, providing I could remember how to get there. My sojourn into the woods had been muddled and shaky. I had no idea what road I had taken, or which way to go back to Devil's Kettle.

_But maybe in the morning_, some sleepy, grayish voice in my mind whispered.

The morning had never felt further away.

**...**

I waited for him. Three days went by and he didn't come back. I didn't hear the soft _whoosh _of feet in the backyard, or the scrabble of fingernails on wood, of someone scaling the wall. He was not hovering by my window, or lurking inside my closet.

The first night after our argument, I left a slab of raw beef on the windowsill. In the morning, it was still there, albeit congealed and foul-smelling. The second night, I stayed up until dawn with my reading lamp on and the heavy flashlight clutched in my hands.

The third night, I cried. I was taking a warm bath, and the temperature of the water only served to remind me of the heat coursing through his body, beating against my skin like a sun. I saw his dark eyes and his messy hair. My chest felt like it was in a pressure chamber. I sobbed until the water cooled and my face was puffy. Rivulets of snot and saliva ran down my chin.

School was no better. Things had gotten even tenser with Chip. After the third day, Mr. Wroblewski announced the dance.

I watched as the students around me cheered and grinned. Was I the only one who felt a pang of icy dread sweeping through my chest? My eyes strayed inevitably to the girl in the tight skirt, the girl who I'd known and loved like a sister since we were children. The girl who was haunting my dreams.

Because I knew what she was thinking. It was the same thing I was thinking.

This wasn't a dance to Jennifer.

This was a fucking _buffet_.

Think about it: mobs of sweaty, horny boys all packed together in an enclosed, dimly lit auditorium. So many young men, tipsy from the spiked punch, who could watch in wonder as her hand extended towards them. So many boys who would take it. Let her lead them into hallways and deserted school bathrooms. Kiss them for awhile, bring to the surface feelings they only felt in front of the monitor of their porn-riddled computers. And then sink her teeth into their arteries.

Oh, God. And, of course, it would be the perfect opportunity to get to Chip.

I had to warn him.

As soon as the bell rang, I scooped my books up into my arms and dashed out, shoving past about ten students. Chip was just leaving the band room, having probably been talking to the teacher. As soon as he saw me, his eyes lit up, and my stomach clenched.

"Hey, babe."

"Hi. Um, I need to talk to you. Right now. It's _really _important."

"Oh...okay." He let me lead him outside and behind the bleachers.

"So you heard about the dance, right?" I began. It seemed like the most logical place to start, if I wanted to spill everything I knew about Jennifer to Chip. I remembered the night after the Melody Lane fire, when I had tried to tell him about her first appearance. He had brushed off my suspicions as simple worry, and had even suggested I talk to the school counselor. I hoped I could come off rational enough so as to avoid another jab at my sanity.

"Yeah. Listen, I figured maybe we could make reservations somewhere before. Like go to dinner, and then go to the dance after. How does that sound?"

"That's the thing, Chip. I don't think we should go."

His cute brown eyes were full of surprise. "Why not?"

"It's...not safe."

"Why isn't it safe? We've gone to dances before."

"Yeah, but what with everything that's been happening lately..." I babbled.

He cut me off. "Needy, some cannibal boy-killer isn't going to grab someone in the middle of an auditorium full of people. He'd have to be seriously retarded."

"That's the thing, Chip. It isn't just some random guy. I know who it is."

His mouth dropped open. "_Who_?" he demanded incredulously.

"Jennifer."

For a few seconds, he stared at me, absolutely speechless. Then he gave a dry, bitter laugh. "Very funny, Needy."

"I'm not kidding!"

He eyed me. "No," he finally said. "You're not. But why are you so convinced it's Jennifer? I mean, she wasn't half Jonas' size, and he was torn to shreds. Plus, I seriously doubt she's _that _evil."

"Well, she is. It's not really her fault though. She's possessed," I blabbered on. "By a demon. The night of the fire, the band that was playing–Low Shoulder–took Jennifer into the woods in their freaky van and they..._did _something to her. Something that made her into a succubus."

"Which is...?"

"A flesh-eating demon that lures in their prey by seducing them."

"Needy, have you been watching too many SyFy Channel movies again?"

"_No_, Chip. I'm serious. Look." I shrugged off my jacket and pulled the sleeve of my shirt away from my shoulder, where the bite mark on my shoulder still faintly burned.

"You told me that was your weasel."

"Ferret. And I lied. It was Jen."

"She...bit you?"

"Yeah, and I still don't know why. But she let me live. And trust me, Chip. I'm not lying." I let my sleeve slide back into place. "When she feeds, she's totally indestructible. And she hasn't fed since...since Colin. So she's really, really hungry."

"And you think she's going to get someone at the dance."

I took in a deep breath. Okay, here was the hard part. Well maybe not. Telling Chip all of this had been hard enough. This was more like the hardER part.

"No. I think she's going after you, specifically."

Chip turned away from me. "Listen, Needy. I want to believe you. I really do. But what you're saying is totally impossible."

"No, it's not, Chip!" I wailed, my voice rising a frantic octave.

"Yeah, it kind of is. And I think you've been under a whole lot of stress lately. We all have. So I think you're trying to come up with something to explain how you feel."

"Really, Chip?" I barked out a furious laugh. "You think this is some sick _fantasy _of mine? Do you know what I've been through?"

"I'm sorry Needy. I'm sorry I can't be better about this." He was grinding his teeth together, eyes on the grass beneath his sneakers. "But I can't indulge you in this. It's not good for you."

I turned around and punched the first thing I saw, which turned out to be the metal bar holding one section of the bleachers up. I cursed as I pulled my throbbing hand away. The skin had been scraped raw from the metal, and a few beads of blood dotted my knuckles.

"Here, let me help you."

I swatted Chip's hand away. "I don't need your help, Chip." The words were coming out faster than I could contain them. I felt like my words were black and spiny, like the bile Jennifer had puked up the first night she came back. They were ugly and they were painful and I knew I couldn't stop myself from saying them. "I don't need you to believe me. You obviously think I'm crazy. So thanks. Thanks a whole freaking lot."

"Needy, I didn't _mean _it like that!" he growled in frustration. He grabbed me by the elbow. "Please, don't think I'm trying to be a giant douche or anything. I just don't want you to go off like this. I want you to face reality. Whether or not you want to believe it, some creep is going around killing guys. That sucks, but it's also reality. It's also the real, logical explanation, and we can't run from it, no matter how much we want to."

I opened my mouth to say more mean, spiny words, but my throat closed off as tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. I looked at Chip, saw his big eyes and the hair his mom cut and his underground band t-shirt. I saw a boy I had once loved. A boy who deserved a lot better than me.

"You're a great guy, Chip." I told him. "And I think I can forgive you, if you give me some time. I think you shouldn't go to the dance, though. For both of our safety. You don't have to believe me, but _please don't go to that dance_."

With that, I slid his hand off my arm and walked away, too scared and too sad and too angry to look back and see if he was watching me go. A part of me insisted I had done something really stupid, and another part of me argued that I had done something good.

The trouble was, I didn't know which part was right.

**...**

I saw lots of faces. My parents'. Jonas'. Ahmed's. My friends, back at school. They whispered words to me, words I couldn't hear because it felt like I had cotton in my ears, muffling every sound.

When I reached out for them, they backed away into the shadows and melted into the forest.

Eventually, I saw Jennifer. She was naked, save for a pair of fuck-me high heels. Her hair was uncombed, wild and tangled and matted about her shoulders. Dirt covered her skin and her face. She smiled at me, and I saw the blood staining her teeth.

"Hey, Colin."

I pressed my head against the trunk of the tree I was leaning on. "Are you...really here?" I croaked, unsure if this was another manifestation of my ravenous insanity or the real-deal Jennifer Fucking Check.

"Of course I am. Silly Collin. You're not a schizo." She sauntered over and patted me on the head, as though I were a dog. "But you are hungry, aren't you?"

Too weak to say anything smart back, I nodded.

"Did you try to attack Needy again?" she said. Her voice took on a much darker tone, and I knew this was a threat, not just a question.

"No. Honestly," I rasped.

Her face broke out into an eerily wide smile. "Good. You remembered."

"Remembered what?"

"That she's _mine_," she spat between closed teeth, still smiling. She knelt beside me and examined me for a moment. "Poor Colin. So weak and helpless."

"If you're going to kill me again, could you just get it over with?" I wheezed.

"I'm not going to kill you. That would be so formulaic of me."

"Look who's using big words."

"Shut up," she snarled, and I fell silent. "I actually came here to offer you something. Aren't I nice?"

"Offer me what?"

She extended an arm forward, and I spied a rough, jagged cut across her wrist. "Some of my blood. It'll make you stronger."

"Why would you want me to be stronger?" I leaned my head away so the smell of her blood wouldn't pervade my senses. She obviously hadn't fed in awhile, or she would have healed up instantly.

"Because I'd like a fair fight."

"A fair fight?"

"Yeah." She looked off into the dense canopy of evergreens. For a moment, I spied something pass over her face. Something darker and deeper than any of the emotions I had seen from her so far. When she turned back to me, her face was blank. "I can't do this much longer, Colin. It's too much. So I want it to be over soon."

My tired brain felt like an '80's computer, slowly whirring and clicking into place. "You want..."

"I want you to kill me." She looked down at her hands, and I saw her bare shoulders tremble a bit. "I want you to be the one because I killed you. I took something away from you that I can never give back. And I can't say I regret it, but I know you do. So I want to go out with a bang."

"You want me to fight you."

"Yes." She glanced at the sky. "The moon'll be waxing soon, and I'll be at my most powerful. Unless you feed, you'll be at your weakest. That's why I want you to take some of my blood. You'll be really strong for awhile, and so we can have a fight. A fight to the death." Her eyes met mine through her curtain of bramble-filled hair. "One of us will die."

The ground seemed like it was tipping under me, like reality was slipping away. I knew this feeling all too well. It seemed as though it had been coming in and out of my life since the first night I came back to life.

I watched the trees. Bluebirds hopped between branches. Spruce needles carpeted the ground. A few yards away, a doe led her babies to a pool. Centipedes slithered through the forest floor.

There was life all around me, and creatures like me and Jennifer did nothing but end it.

If I fought Jennifer, I could die, but if it prevented me from hurting Needy, then so be it.

"I'll do it."

She inched her arm closer to my face. "Great. Now drink up."

I closed my mouth over the cut and let the red tide ebb into my mouth.

**A/N: Wow, Colin really is emo, offering to do that. I guess I just wanted to bring a less villainous, bitchy side of Jen into the story. I wanted her to have some guilt over what she'd done. But she doesn't know exactly how she's feeling or what to do about it, so she decides to just take herself out of the equation. Still, I wanted to stir up a little sympathy for her. Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope you like the re-write of the scene between Needy and Colin. It's probably pretty different from the one in the movie, but hell, that's what fanfiction's for! R&R pleeeeeaaaassseeee!**


	8. The Shadow Hanging Over Me

**Chapter Eight: The Shadow Hanging Over Me**

She left me in the woods, slumped against the tree. After I had fed, exhaustion set in, and I slept. When I awoke, hours and hours later, the sun was just setting over the treeline, the entire sky purple and gold. I stood up and stretched, letting my body loosen up.

I felt jumpy and impatient. I wanted to run, to climb, to fly. Jen's blood had filled me with volatile energy.

But where would I go? Not back to Needy's. She certainly wouldn't want me back there.

I made my way through the woods until I was back at the road, and began the trek back to Devil's Kettle. A car pulled up beside me as I walked. I froze, terrified that they would recognize me from the papers.

The driver rolled down the window. "Need a ride, son?"

"Where are you headed?" I replied. My voice sounded high and shaky, even to me.

"Just passing through."

So he most likely wasn't from town. That, at least, was a relief. "I would appreciate that, thank you."

The passenger door opened, and I climbed in. I caught sight of myself in the overhead mirror. I had leaves and twigs in my hair and dirt on my clothes, as well as a smattering of red stains on my shirt. I zipped up my sweatshirt, hoping the driver hadn't noticed. I snuck a sideways glance at him. He was a thin, reedy farmer the kind of intense tan that came with working in fields all your life. Fairly harmless.

"So what were you doing all the way out here?" he asked.

I swallowed. "I was at a...party."

He shook his head. "You kids."

**...**

_The air was thick with the smell of rot. The room was musty and dark, high-cielinged and cavernous. Slimy, lichen-ridden water pooled around two pairs of feet. Disorderly dark hair hung down in front of a pale face. Two stormy eyes burned. Thin trails of blood and blackish fluid tricked from trembling lips. A white hand pointed a shaking finger, nails painted with flaking black polish. A metal rosary curled around the wrist, the cross catching whatever low light remained in the room and glinting._

"No!" I shrieked, bolting up.

"Miss Lesnicki?"

Twenty-four heads turned to stare at me. The late Señorita Erickson's sub looked puzzled and a little impatient.

"Sorry." I glared down at my desk. I had never fallen asleep in class before.

"Please refrain from doing it again," she replied crisply and turned away. I made a face at her back and turned back to stare at my desk. Another dream, and this one had Colin in it, of that I was sure.

I willed myself to feel disgusted, to hate the thought of him. But I couldn't help it. Every time the image of his face flitted into my mind–and believe me, that was often–it was smiling Colin, serious Colin, laughing Colin. Colin sitting beside my bed as I slept. Colin holding my hands in his.

Never snarling Colin. Never growling Colin.

Jesus Christ, this wasn't good.

_Who even knows where he is? _I thought miserably. I turned to look out the window, half-hoping I would once again see him leaning against the bleachers, the sight that had come to comfort me so much over the past couple of weeks. _Who knows if he's even alive_?

Back at home, I found an envelope taped to the door. I pried the tape away and opened the envelope, grimacing when I saw two tickets to the dance inside. I knew they were from Chip, and a mixture of irritation and guilt filled me. He knew I hadn't wanted him to go, and we had practically broken up the day before. What was he trying to do?

I hadn't the heart to throw them out, so I shoved them into my pocket and slammed the door shut behind me.

As I started up the stairs to my bedroom, I heard loud music blasting from the upstairs hallway. Strains of a Good Charlotte song filled the air.

"_Girls don't like boys/Girls like cars and money...Boys will laugh at girls/When they're not funny..._"

Taking a deep breath, I kicked my door open. Jennifer stopped whatever dance she'd been doing to the song and turned around, her face lighting up in a perfect Jen smile.

"Hey, Monistat!"

"Vag–I mean, Jennifer! What the hell are you doing here?" I screeched.

"You'd think you would be more used to this," she mused, switching off my CD player and sitting down cross-legged on my bed. "Between me and Mr. Gray popping up all the time..."

"You knew Colin was here?" I demanded incredulously.

"Yeah. The night he was outside Chip's."

The night he had first tried to bite me.

"But he needs to know something." She darted forward and grabbed my shirt, ripping it away from my body–literally.

"Hey! That was my Marilyn Monroe shirt!" I protested, watching the fabric flutter to the ground. "I bought that at the yard sale, remem–"

"–Needy," she cut me off. "Look at your scar."

I did. "It's a bite mark. That you gave me, thank you very much. What about it?"

"It's _my _mark. It means you're _mine_," she corrected me, grinning. "So you can't hurt me."

"What does that mean?" I demanded, crossing my arms over my torso.

"You can't hurt me, or like, overthrow me," she said. "Basically, you can't do shit to me. So if you were planning to deep-six me, you're out of luck."

"That's bullshit. I can hurt you if I want to," I snapped. I grabbed the flashlight off my end table and raised it above my head.

I didn't really want to hurt her; demon or no, she _was _my best friend. I just wanted to scare her. So when I brought my arms down, I didn't expect a shockwave of red-hot pain to pulse through my body.

Dropping the flashlight, I fell backwards, curling up into a ball and felt the pain go away as quickly as it had come.

"See?" Jen stood above me, a triumphant smile on her scarlet lips. "Sucks, doesn't it?"

"How did–how did you find out about this?"

"I don't know, Needy. When you're like me, you just _know _things."

My body felt fuzzy and tingling as the last of the pain wore off. I scrambled to my feet and leaned against the wall, sucking in big breaths of air. "Why are you bringing this up, anyway?" I managed to gasp. "Killing you and all."

"No spoilers!" She smiled coyly. "But don't worry, you'll find out soon enough." With that, she turned and stuck a leg out of my open window.

"Jennifer, wait–"

"No time, Monistat!" she called cheerily. "I have dresses to shop for!"

Before I could say anything else, she slithered out of the window and was gone in a second. I launched myself at the window and yanked it down, feeling an awful anger possess me. I and everyone I knew was completely fucked, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

**...**

I got out of the car, thanked the driver, and turned towards my destination: the school. The sun was beginning to set, and all the buildings on campus were darkened, except for the gym, which was blazing with strobe lights. I waited for the car to round the corner, drew up my hood and made a running start towards the fence, leaping onto it and finding footholds effortlessly. I suppose I had Jen's blood to thank for that.

When I reached the top, I swung my legs gingerly over the barbed wire loops (barbed wire loops on a _school _fence? Nice to know they trusted us so much) and jumped to the ground, landing on my feet. Hastily, I dashed towards the gym.

It was sufficiently dark and empty for me to conceal myself in one of the crêpe paper-smothered corners. A couple of parents ran around, arranging refreshments and bunches of flowers on tables. I watched this all with a tiny twinge of envy. I could have gone to this dance. Even if it would have just been me and the rest of the Dead Kids moshing in the center of the dance floor to whatever angry song we got the DJ to play, even if it was me just standing on the fringe complaining about how much this sucked, it still beat…

Well, it beat whatever I was doing right now.

I'd even rather be glaring at Chip's back the entire night as he and Needy slow-danced. I would have put up with my friends snickering at me, mocking me about being "in love with Barbie".

That's when I left the gym. I couldn't stand it in there much longer.

**…**

I couldn't help a hiss of pain as the curling iron grazed my forehead.

"Sorry, Needy," Mom said, reaching around to prod the damage.

"Watch it!" I snapped, and immediately wished I hadn't.

"You're awfully on edge tonight. Did you and Chip have a fight?"

"Uh...not r-really."

"Needy..."

Fucking stutter.

"Just a small one," I amended. Seemingly satisfied, she let the matter drop and set to fussing with the back of my dress. I smoothed my hands over the bodice nervously and tried to smile, even though I felt like I looked like Glinda, or a Disney princess. I had only worn this dress because my mom had bought it several months back and couldn't wait to get me into it.

"Is he coming to pick you up?" she asked, dabbing rouge on my cheeks.

"We're meeting at the dance."

"Oh. Alright."

After a few more minutes of my mother's hands fluttering about my face with brushes and tubes, she let me be. I looked at the girl in the mirror. She was a doll, a plastic blow-up facsimile. Beneath all the glitter, her face was blank.

I turned away and set to putting in my contacts. Whatever Jennifer had in store, I would need to be at the dance to make sure it didn't involve Chip.

**...**

The gym was stuffy, the air saturated with a million girl's perfumes. I breathed in the noxious, floral smell and tried not to cough and give myself away. Throughout the whole dance, I had been lurking behind a set of streamer-covered bleachers, watching the gym floor writhe with a thousand sequined limbs. Watching the kids I had gone to school with press close together, grind against each other, discreetly spike their punch made this whole thing seem like a parody of itself, a movie about a bunch of kids at a high school dance. Everything was so cliché and predictable. It was as though everyone was playing a part.

And then I realized that everyone _was_. These kids wanted one night where they didn't have to worry about one of them getting ripped apart by some faceless killer. Girls just wanted to hold their boyfriends and assure themselves that they would live another night. Teachers could watch over the students and feel relief in the fact that they were all so very _alive_.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a girl in a fuchsia dress glide in. Her hair was done in curls, twisty and pale gold around her shoulders. She looked like some sort of Broadway Fairy/Princess. A total visual overload.

And yet, somehow very sexy. I watched her thread her way through the dancers, and stuck my head out a little when she walked by the bleachers. "Needy!" I whisper-shouted.

She turned. "Colin!"

Grabbing her arm, I pulled her behind the bleachers. She struggled, but I pressed her up against the wall and put my finger over her lips. "I'm not here to hurt you," I whispered. "Just be quiet and let me explain."

"Colin..."

"I'm really, really sorry about what happened at your house. I shouldn't have done what I did. It was really douchey of me." Shit, I was starting to babble. "But I came here to warn you–you and Chip. Where is he?"

"That's the thing. I don't know." She wriggled and I let her go. "I've been looking all over for him. He was supposed to meet me here. What do you need to warn me about?"

"Jen came to me last night, after I left your house. She told me she wanted to fight me. A fight to the death. I think she's starting to feel guilty about what she's done, and she wants to set things straight."

"By fighting you? But you could die! _She _could die!" Needy cried.

"I know." I ran my hands through my hair. "She gave me her blood, though. She's really serious about this. At this rate, we'll be pretty evenly matched."

"You're serious about this too, aren't you?" Needy demanded, looking up at me. "You're really going to fight her."

I sighed. "The way I see it, it could put an end to everything that's been happening these past few months. There'll be one less of us."

"Yeah, but it's–it's still a _fight_, Colin."

"I know." I turned away. "It just–feels like the right thing to do."

Needy was silent for a moment. "Honestly, I don't agree with you," she said at last. "But it's your decision."

"Great. _Now _we just need to find Chip–"

Mr. Wroblesky's voice cut in above the blaring speakers. The music was paused; the crowd went still. Needy and I peeked around the bleachers.

The hook-handed Chem teacher stood on the stage, a megaphone to his mouth. After thanking the parents at the PTA, he made an announcement that I'm sure made both of us break out in a nervous sweat. Well, it would have for me if I still did sweat.

"May I present to you–Low Shoulder!"

The crowd erupted in cheers as the curtains on the stage parted, revealing the band. Needy's breath caught in her throat. "No, no, no! Why are they back here?"

"Needy, calm down." I reached for her, and she shoved me away.

"This can't be happening. This can_not _be happening. How could tonight get any worse?" There was anguish in her eyes. She started forwards, and I gripped her arm to stop her.

"Needy, you need to slow down and think. Why would they be here?"

"To...find another girl," she muttered. "I mean, why else, right?"

"Uh...right."

"Shit. We have to tell someone."

"_I _can't tell anyone. In case you've forgotten, I've kinda been dead for awhile. And no one's gonna believe you anyway. Everyone thinks they're heroes."

"Shit. Shit."

Needy stomped around a few moments, swearing in that very un-Needylike fashion. In any other circumstance, I would have laughed; she was dressed like a princess and cussing like a sailor.

When she turned back to me, there was a newfound resolve in her voice. "Let's make a run for the back door. We can go to Chip's house and try to warn him, right?"

"I guess."

"Good." She stood on her tiptoes and pecked me on the cheek. "I'm glad you're on my side, Colin."

Yeah. Me too.

**...**

"_Go quiet through the trees_," Nik sighed into the microphone, and the music petered out as the auditorium filled with cheers. "Thank you! Thank you!"

There were girls clawing at the stage, desperate to get closer to him. Nikolai sighed in contentment. _This _was what he had dreamed of when he'd put the band together. _This _was what being a musician was all about.

A flash of bright pink caught his eye, and he saw a very familiar blonde girl dart out of the auditorium, a Goth boy in tow.

It was that Jenny chick's friend. And she was getting away.

Nik slid the mic back into the stand. He gestured for Dirk to come forward.

"It's her," he whispered.

"Who?"

"Fucking Jan Brady. She's getting away."

Dirk's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh..."

"Come on, we gotta catch her."

"Nik, you really think–"

"_Yeah, _I 'really think' whatever you're going to say, Dirk. And I know that deep inside your heart, you _really think _too," Nik purred, putting a comforting hand on the bassist's shoulder. "Maroon 5, remember?"

Dirk sighed. "Yeah. Maroon 5."

"Good. Now let's get going."

**...**

I stumbled towards the car, Colin dragging me like a little kid headed towards a candy shop. His grip on my arm was almost too tight, but I had no breath left inside me to protest.

There it was. I took a moment to lean against it and take in a deep breath before reaching inside my bra for my keys.

I caught Colin staring as I did.

"Why are you–"

"I don't have anywhere else to put them with this dress," I explained.

"Oh." Raising an eyebrow, he turned to the side, all gentlemanly. I pulled out the keys and inserted them into the lock.

"Colin, c'mon. Let's go."

We slid into the car and I gunned the engine, just as a black van slid into view.

No. No. _No. _Why were they out here? They were supposed to be inside, playing.

I stomped on the brakes, held my breath and waited for them to pass me by. I prayed they wouldn't remember me. I wasn't wearing my glasses–

A moment later, with a screech of metal and tires, the van collided with my car.

In my haste to actually get _in _the dumb vehicle, I had forgotten my seatbelt. I cussed under my breath as I gravitated towards the windshield, forehead smacking against it with a thick, nasty-sounding _clunk_.

Let me say here that I'm thankful I passed out before the pain really hit.

...

The second I saw the van, I knew we were headed towards a bad situation. I turned to Needy, to warn her, and then the van rammed into us.

Luckily enough, I was practically indestructible, thanks to a certain Jennifer-Fucking-Check's blood.

Needy was not.

The car shuddered with the impact and was still. I straightened out and whirled around to face Needy who, to my horror, lay slumped forward, blood smearing her hair and face. Spatters of blood adorned the dashboard and steering wheel.

I scrambled out of the car and hurried to her side, yanking the door open. She tipped forward and I caught her, trying to support her even as my own legs felt weak from the crash. My super-fucking-senses detected the tiniest hint of a pulse and shallow breathing, which meant at least she wasn't dead. Thank God for that.

A few meters away, the black van had slowed, its front only slightly scarred. The doors swung open and three of the band members rushed towards us.

I laid Needy down on the asphalt as gently as possible and then turned to them and bared my teeth. I could feel my jaw unhinging as the full power of my maw made itself visible.

One of the guys screeched to a halt. "Oh, shit. N-Nik!" he called.

The one I recognized as the lead singer stepped out of the vehicle, a black canvas bag slung over his shoulder. "Wha–"

His words died in his throat when he saw me. "–oh, shit." His eyes fixed on me, he reached slowly for whatever was inside his bag.

I wasn't sure if knives or guns could harm me right now, but I couldn't risk him pulling something dangerous out. I sprung at him, hissing.

Two of the band members hurried towards me to try and hold me back, and I swiped them away with one move of my arm. They fell to the ground and scrambled away, terrified.

I was maybe a foot away from the lead singer now. I glared at him, feeling a hatred I didn't even know I possessed swell up inside me. The raw, animal part of me whispered somewhere in the back of my mind. _He hurt Needy. Hurt him back_.

I was much obliged. I grabbed him by the throat and dragged his face close to mine. He felt light as a toothpick, despite the fact that he was easily three or four inches taller than me.

There was no fear in his eyes. Only a calm smirk playing across his lips showed me he was feeling anything at all.

"Very impressive," he chuckled. "Really, Jenny-girl's got _nothing _on you."

I hissed at him again, hoping to scare him into shutting up.

"Too bad, though," he continued, as though we'd been having a perfectly normal conversation. "You don't know how to watch your _back_."

And then he plunged something between my shoulder blades.

I pulled away from him and staggered across the parking lot, the pain too intense to let me cry out. One of my hands fluttered uselessly at my back, searching for whatever he'd stabbed me with, but my strength was waning. I stumbled a few more paces and fell down, right next to where Needy lay, unconscious.

Struggling to prop myself up, I reached a shaking hand out to touch the side of her face, her skin so cool compared to mine. I could feel my fangs retracting, my jaw clicking back into place, allowing for speech.

"N-Needy," I gasped. "I…"

I could hear Nik's footsteps approaching the both of us.

"I…I love…"

Nik grabbed the thing in my back and yanked it out, only to sink it back in. Darkness hit me like a wave.

And then nothing.

…

**A/N: Omuhgaws cliffhanger! I'm SO SORRY for not updating for so long. I feel like a terrible person. I've just been super busy. I can't say for sure when a new chapter's coming out, but it'll probably be soon…ish….ish. Anyways, R&R!**


	9. Move on, Dot Org

**Chapter Nine: She's a Kicker**

The Devil's Kettle Community Rec Center got shut down when I was seven or eight. The builders discovered asbestos in its foundation, and since a lot of lazy parents brought their annoying kids there to splash around in the pool and struggle with the rock-climbing wall, the company who'd built it feared they'd be sued for endangerment. So they closed it down.

I actually remember my mom taking me there when I was little and trying in vain to teach me how to swim. I thrashed about like an epileptic seal until my mother decided that maybe I just wasn't cut out to be a swimmer. "_You shouldn't have made such a scene, Needy,_" she told me as she toweled me off after the harrowing experience. "_The lifeguards thought I was trying to drown you_."

Since then, I'd tended to avoid the water, even at pool parties, where Jen ran around flaunting her bikini body. I usually sat there with my toes in the water and hoped Chip decided to come, or that she'd tear herself away from whatever boy she was planning on boning and come hang out with me.

But I'm getting off-track. I knew we were at the DKCRC even before I'd opened my eyes. The smell of sweat, mold and chlorine filled my nostrils, triggering a coughing fit. I opened my eyes and watched as little colored dots swam in front of my vision before slowly fading. God damn, my head hurt. I tried to remember what they'd told us in Health about head trauma and concussions, but then again, I'd never really paid attention in that class.

As soon as my vision cleared, I hoisted myself into a sitting position with shaking arms and looked around. I was lying on an exercise mat in one of the Rec Center's old yoga rooms, or whatever they were called. A line of dusty, cracked mirrors stared unblinkingly at me, and I caught my own reflection.

I looked like hell. My makeup was smudged, my lips were dry and cracked, and several cuts and scratches covered my cheeks. I ran my fingers over them and winced as my face stung. Those must've been from the car crash.

The car crash–_Colin_. Where was he?

I staggered to my feet, fell, and managed to get up the second time by gripping the mirror's wooden balance bar. I held onto it and took deep breaths until I felt steady, and then started towards the door of the yoga room.

The door sported a square glass window in the center. I pressed my face up against it, peering down the empty hallway. Graffiti adorned the walls, and litter lay strewn across the crumbling linoleum floors, but there were no signs of anyone else being in there.

And then someone rounded the corner. I gave a little shriek of surprise and backed up as the figure approached the window. At first it was too dark to tell who it was, but as he neared I recognized him as Dirk, the bass player.

He stopped in front of the window and stared in at me. "Let me out!" I shouted.

After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head. That moment, the uncertainty in his eyes, was all I needed. He wasn't like Nikolai. He wasn't dead set on whatever it was they were doing. And I could work this to my advantage.

I pressed my open palm against the glass window. "Please," I begged, making my voice sound soft and shaky. "Please let me out."

This time he glanced nervously over his shoulder before holding a finger to his lips.

"Answer me," I pleaded. "_Please_…"

"I–hold on," he said, his voice sounding warped from the other side of the door. He pulled a bunch of keys from his pants pocket and flicked through them until he found the right one. I took a step back as he twisted the key in the lock and opened the door. I was all set to knee him in the gonads and make a run for it, but he closed it quickly behind him. "You have to be quiet," he cautioned. "Sound carries well here. Nik could hear you."

"What does he want with me?" I demanded.

"He wants to sacrifice you."

My stomach twisted up, and I could feel bile rising in my throat. "Why? You already have everything you could possibly want…"

Dirk gave a hollow laugh. "If only that were the case. Nik thinks it's _not enough_. It's crazy, y'know?" he said, almost to himself. "We used to just jam in my garage and…"

I cut him off. "But what do you want with Colin?"

"We didn't want anything with him. He got in the way, and Nik decided to make him part of his plan."

"How?"

"I'm not exactly sure. He's being really secretive."

I groaned. Could he have possibly been _less _helpful? "You can't let him do this. This is insane."

"I can't stop him…" he paused. "…what's your name, anyway?"

"Needy," I supplied.

"Needy." The way he repeated, the way his lips formed the words, the way he looked off, over my shoulder as he said it, made me realize something.

He _liked _me. The bass player of Low Shoulder had a crush on me.

_Well, Needy, _I thought. _How am I gonna make this part of my master escape plan?_

…

So her name was Needy. Dirk turned it over and over in his head. It must have been a nickname or something, since nobody would name their kid Needy by itself. It was strange, he'd expected something different…

His gaze fell on her. Even with her face all cut up and her dress in ribbons, she looked beautiful. Like something from a kid's story, the princess who fought her way through the brambles.

She was looking up at him with shining eyes. Without her glasses, he could really see how big they were. Big and soulful. "You have to help me, Dirk," she said, choking back a sob. "I _know _you're not that kind of person. I know you're a good guy."

The way she said it tugged at his heart. _She's right_, he thought, sighing. _I never wanted to do this._

"Please help me, Dirk," she whispered. "_Please_."

She reached forward and grabbed his hand, bringing it to her mouth. Still gazing at him with those enormous eyes of hers, she pressed her lips against his fingers.

A thrill went through Dirk's body. Instinctively, his other hand rested on the back of her head and he leaned forward, his lips meeting hers. She hesitated and then reciprocated, bringing him to the ground with her. She rolled beneath him and parted her legs, twining them around his waist. He shifted on top of her, hoping she couldn't feel his enormous boner through her dress.

"Come on, Dirk…" she moaned softly, sending a hundred chills down his spine. "Show me what you can do…"

…

I awoke with the biggest headache I've ever had. I looked down…whoa…a knife wound? When had that happened?

Oh, yeah.

"FUCK!" I shouted, launching myself up. I was stopped at a certain point. There was rope around my wrists, tethering me to a metal hook on the concrete floor.

Suddenly a large black boot loomed into view, the kind rockstars and punk douchebags wear. It came down on my chest, and I heard myself give an inhuman roar of pain as the boot's heel dug into my stab wound.

"Shut up, kid."

My cries choked off and I huffed for air, glaring up at the owner of the boot, the lead singer of the band that had been performing at prom.

"That's better. Now do you know why you're here?" he gave a roll of his heavily lined eyes. "Oh yeah, that's right, it doesn't actually matter why you're here to _you_. It matters a whole bunch to _us. _See, kid, you and your little girlfriend are here to skyrocket us to fame."

"You're already famous, dumb-ass," I growled. His boot came down on my wound again and I clenched my jaw to keep from yelling.

"Did I _tell _you to give me your input on my plan? No, I didn't. And fame is great…but we don't have enough. We're one-hit wonders, let's face it. And I want to be more. I'm talking Grammy's…world tours…pussy by the ton." He laughed. "And to get all that, I'm gonna need to kill Blondie."

"You need…a virgin sacrifice…"I managed to gasp, though it wasn't easy. "She…Needy…isn't a virgin."

"No need to lie to save your little damsel," Nik replied, a sneer on his face.

Oh, boy. _And the truth shall set you free? _Bullshit.

…

I stayed on my back, waiting for Dirk to finish.

He wasn't being too rough, that wasn't the problem.

He wasn't mean at all, that wasn't the problem either.

He just…wasn't Colin.

I mean–_Chip_! He wasn't Chip.

Oh, bullshit, Needy, I thought, gritting my teeth as Dirk groaned and finished. Luckily, he'd had a rubber on-hand. What a gentleman.

"So," I said, pushing my voice to be as seductive as possible. "How was that?"

"That was…whew. Fucking amazing," he panted, running hand through his disorderly hair and wiping his forehead.

"So will you help me?" I asked, looking up at him. I reached out and touched his cheek. "Come on, Dirk. You wouldn't let me go like that, would you?"

He swallowed. "I mean…I guess you're of no use to us."

"Exactly," I pushed.

He looked away as he buckled his pants and his belt. "I'll see what I can do," he muttered, turning and closing the door, locking it behind him.

I rolled up slowly into a ball. My skin was sticky with sweat, from his mouth, his fingers all over me. My body ached lightly.

I closed my eyes and prayed for sleep.

**a/n: I'm sorry for the offing year-long wait! My life has been twelve kinds of intense, and I really had no time to get back to this. This is the beginning of the end, if you can't tell, and more will come as soon as possible, I promise!**

**Thanks to my ever-dedicated reviewers and fans!**


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